The Collisnport Chronicles XIV: Roxanne Drew
by Maryland Rose
Summary: After a victory there are casualties that try to heal. The most tragic of all is Roxanne Drew...
1. Chapter 1

The Leviathan have been defeated. Peace returns to Collinsport. But the aftermath of a battle is rarely joyous. There are casualties with wounds that take long to heal. Among those are Phillip, Vicky, Carolyn, Derek, and Sandy. And Roxanne who is losing more and more control each day

* * *

ROXANNE DREW

Chapter 1

Angelique was acting absentminded, to say the least, Megan noted, and she had been doing it for too long.

"Anything wrong" she asked sympathetically "You think that they might be coming back again?"

"Not for a very long while"

"Then why aren't you acting happier?"

"It is Sebastian..."

"Sebastian? You mean the one who lives with Roxanne?"

"Yes. I am worried that Roxanne will make him pay for not keeping a stricter watch on me."

"The way she loves him? Not a chance."

"There is something about her that scares me."

"Like a guilty conscience?"

Angelique shook her head with conviction. "It is more than that. Sebastian himself told me how she changed since she got her memory back."

"Will you mind explaining yourself? What is with Roxanne's memory?"

"Roxanne survived as a pawn for the creatures who employ her. She does their dirty work. And believe me, they had plenty of it. They might be more well intentioned than the Leviathan, but their methods are too similar. Eventually it gets too much for Roxanne. She tried to get hooked, so as to be useless. Instead they erased her memory, and allowed her to believe that she was a different person. One who was helpful, and devoted to good causes. And who could not always remember much... but who remembered that she was a good person. Until she was needed again. She did again the dirty work, and once it was done, her memory was wiped out... At some point her secondary personality must have suspected the truth, and that's when she finished hooking herself. Then she met Sebastian, and loved him. Between the both of them, they kicked the drug.. She though that they had a future together. Then she got her memory back."

"Whatever her personality is, she loves Sebastian. I talked enough with her about it."

"But what future can he have with her? Suppose he...converts him. It is not only vampirism. It is working for those... creatures. Sebastian does not know what will happen to him."

"So you want to rescue him?"

"Yes."

"And take something else from her? Something of value? Persecute her again?"

"But..."

"Look you are the last person who should interfere there. You have done enough harm to her. Let her enjoy what she can of her existence."

"But Sebastian..."

"Is old enough to make his own decisions."

"He shouldn't be subject to that!"

"Neither should Roxanne. But you condemned her to it. So leave her alone. Let her have Sebastian."

* * *

Vicky stared at the ceiling, not a muscle moving in her face.

"She's been like that since that...thing left her body." Julia said with weariness in her voice. "Nothing seems to bring her around."

Barnabas touched her cheek. Only its warmth told him that Vicky was still alive.

"Roxanne said that she went through the Ring." he said, dully "she never learned of anybody recovering form that. But then, they were not looking for a cure too hard."

"Don't put your hopes too high. She might never recover."

"Still we have to try."

Julia sighed. "Yes, we have to try. It seems so hopeless... And the Ring is still there, and it is still being used..."

Barnabas smiled crookedly "Is that a hint to tell me to hurry in getting the information out of Phillip?"

"Roxanne might lose her patience and take matters into her own hands."

"I will keep her away from Phillip. If she still wants to get even, she can collect on me, not on Phillip. He never hurt her in any way."

Barnabas picked up Vicky's hand. It might well have been a rag that he was picking. He held it, squeezed it, pressing it against his cheek..."

Vicky's eyes remained empty as he let the hand fall down again.

"I have to go." Julia said. "but you can stay with her if you wish."

She went out, while Barnabas' eyes never left Vicky's face.

Vicky. Victoria Winters. Memories rushed back to him. She had sought happiness first with Burke Devlin, and then with Jeff Clark. And he had been in the way. It gladdened him that at least he had caused neither Burke nor Jeff's death. But he had wanted to... And if Vicky had married Burke none of this would have happened to her...

No, Burke had to die to keep him from marrying Burke. The Leviathan had her eye on her and would not tolerate interference of any kind. If need be, they would have used him to remove Burke as they had used him to remove Jason McGuire...

He should feel relieved to know that the responsibility for that death was not wholly his. Nor the responsibility for Carl Collins' death. But it did not make him feel better. It made him feel worse... To know that he had been a pawn, that he had been used so easily... the sense of personal violation would not go away...

He wondered what had happened to Jeff Clark/Peter Bradford. According the Phillip, when Peter came to his cell, claiming vengeance against Jeb Hawkes he had a noose around his neck... So he had not really saved them in 1795 with his trip to the past...

He rearranged Vicky's hair to keep it away from the face and adjusted the bedcovers. In a couple of hours she would have to be moved so that she didn't develop bedsores...

"Is that all we can do for you now?" he asked, sick with the knowledge that it probably was.

"Maybe there is more." A voice said behind him.

He was not surprised to see Peter Bradford there, the noose still around his throat.

"So there was no happy ending for you too."

"You tried. but... but you did not know the whole story."

"What did they do to you?"

"They captured her and took her away. As for me, it was an easy matter to frame me for some murder and let me hang.. So they did."

"I... I am sorry."

"For what? It was none of your doing. All you did is believe that you were giving us a future... They just used you. You were as much property to them as Vicky was." he paused and added bitterly "You should have cut off my head, as Lang said. Then none of this would have happened."

"I should never have tried to do that."

"It would have been better for everybody if you had. I would not have pulled Vicky back to them. She would not be like this now... It might even have been better if you should have made her like you... that would have protected her..."

"It didn't protect me. It didn't protect Derek."

Peter shook his head." I should have never set eyes on her. Never returned her love. When she came to me I should have beaten and raped her..."

"No, you should not have."

"Why not? Look what my love did to her."

"You didn't know it would end like this."

"Does it matter what I knew?"

Barnabas decided it was time to change conversation. "You said that there is something I could do.".

"Yes. It is a long shot. You, due to your condition, have certain powers. Maybe you could use them to reach into her mind... If she still has any mind to be reached."

"You think it is possible?"

Peter bent again over Vicky. "Do what you can for her."

"I will. If there is a way, I will find it."

"Good." he straightened , slowly. He stood erect, as he probably had that morning when the rope had been fastened to his throat. "I will hold you to it."

* * *

"Uncle Roger..." they took my baby" Carolyn wept. "They killed it, and now I will never have another one."

Roger patted her hand. He didn't understand much of what had happened... he seemed to remember strange things, too weird to be real, and too vivid to be dreams... But he knew that Carolyn was crying and that he could do nothing to help her.

"They tell me that it had to be done." Carolyn had forced out of her mind the memories of being shut in a dark place, or of the snake mouth opening to swallow her... it was all dreams caused by the anesthetic, she told herself..

"Her child could not do what they said he did! It was a trick. At trick of Barnabas! The monstrosity that Kenneth claimed had been the fetus.. She couldn't have carried it inside of her! They were lying, all of them! "They... they killed my baby" she repeated.

"Who were they?" Roger asked.

"Barnabas. He wants to be Master of Collinwood, and my child was in the way."

Barnabas had done this to Carolyn. Roger straightened up slowly. It was all his fault... He should have known that Barnabas would do something like that... He had tried to protect Carolyn, but he had failed...

He had failed the only person who cared for him.

But he would not fail her again. Barnabas would pay for this.

Carolyn moaned, hiding her face in the pillow. Her baby, her beautiful baby, gone... There would be no more babies, no more Collinses...

And they wanted her to believe that she had been pregnant of a monstrosity ...Liars... all of them liars...

"Oh, Jebb, I am so sorry.. I lost our baby..."

* * *

Nicholas looked at the stumps of his arms. He had no more hands. They had been amputated as they had been too mangled by Sandy's teeth. They said that he could use prosthetic devices. Hooks, which, as they said, could do as much as his own hands...

Except make magic passes properly...

He had been attacked by a werewolf... But he could not count on the full moon for the pleasure of tearing up the throats of those in his personal enemies list. Come the full moon, there would be no metamorphosis. A small ceremony by Angelique had destroyed the cures. A ceremony that had a small window of 48 hours after infection to be effective...

There was a cough by the door and Sheriff Brant entered the room.

"You came here to gloat?"

"I came to deliver a warning."

"A warning?"

"You lost both hands. Maybe that will be enough to teach you to stay out of trouble."

"They made me do it! Vicky Winters, she forced me into it."

"There is no way we can prove otherwise." George said "still, the way Derek remembers it, in that little ceremony you subjected Mrs. Collins to, you were a too willing participant. Roger, Derek, and Dr. Taft were all sickened by it. But you just taunted Mrs. Collins."

If Derek had recovered his memory to that extent...if his power was all gone again..."

"You are a lucky man, Mr. Blair, relatively speaking. We cannot prove that you were a willing participant."

"You call this lucky"" Nicholas lifted his arms.

"Yes. Because Mrs. Collins doesn't believe what we tell her. She keeps insisting that it is a trick of Barnabas to get rid of her baby. That's why she had not hired Angelique to put the shadow on you again."

Nicholas gulped.

"If I were you, I'd get out of town in a hurry. Go back to selling Florida swampland."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Roxanne kissed Sebastian deeply "Do you feel better now?" she asked him.

"I do." He wondered if he would ever be able to tell her what was bothering him. She needed him so much...

Roxanne held him so close that he could hear the slow beating of his heart. Dear Sebastian, who had been with her since the day she had decided to kick the habit and get back on her feet...

...But that was before she recovered her memory. Before she knew how little freedom she had..."

Did she have the right to do this to him?, she thought as her teeth searched for his vein... he did not really know what she was doing to him... what she was being ordered to do to him...

But she needed him so much...

She didn't have to decide it yet. A transformation could be made to last a long time.

She could just enjoy him now. While there was still time. While he did not hate her.

* * *

Sandy stood by the door of the bedroom, waiting for Herb to fall asleep.

At least it salvaged her pride. She did not have to hear any of his excuses. He had been very understanding, Herbert, hadn't he?" When Julia said that she could lead a normal life he had decided to take her back. And still expected her to be grateful.

But he still did not like to see her alone with the children, still gave her side glances...

"We can't go on like this." she said aloud.

"Huh?" Hebert said from his bed.

"You don't want me anymore, do you?" she said mercilessly.

"I do, honey." Herbert was too irritated to sound convincing. "I do not know where you get those ideas."

"I do not imagine things. You don't want me."

"You area upset. Which is understanble. After what you've been through."

"What I have gone through, is that it? What Tom Jennings did to me? Or the fact that I grow long hair in the full moon?"

"Don't dwell on it. It is not good for you."

"I am not dwelling, you are. You can't forget it. You can't forgive me for it."

"Sandy..." he was angry now. "I don't want to hear any more of that nonsense.. You have to get hold of yourself."

"I have a hold of myself. It is you who can't accept that. It is you who are trying to keep me away from my children."

"Look, Dr. Hoffman says that soon you'll be back to... to the way you were before. Try to be patient."

"What if she's wrong? What if I have to stay like this for a long time? Look what happened to Barnabas, He has to stay as he is for a long time."

"Barnabas." Herb's face darkened. "You do nothing but speak of him."

"He's been more of a help that you have been."

* * *

The man looked familiar, yet he could not place him. Mentally he reviewed all the "Wanted" posters he had been looking at for the past six months, but the face didn't fit any of them.

And somehow the man looked straight, not a crook. Maybe he prided himself too much in his cop's intuition to be able to tell the one who were trouble at a glance. But this man was not one of them.

George Brant went to the man, still searching for the name to go with the face.

"Anything wrong. sheriff?" the man asked, nervously then his face opened in surprise. "George Brant, of all people!"

"Mitch, Mitch Penn! Is that you, really?"

"The same one, all right."

"You have done quite well for yourself, it seems "George said "You dress for success."

"Not only that. I got a house in the suburbs and two cars. And a swimming pool in the backyard."

"You achieved the American dream? I never thought you'd make it."

"I had help. What about you? I see that you are the sheriff now."

"Yup. Did well for myself, too."

Mitch looked at him shrewdly "Are you married?"

"No. Still a confirmed bachelor."

"I see. You are still a Woodard boy."

George stiffened. "What do you mean?"

"I was one too. But I stopped being one. He set me loose and it worth my while to go away and leave him alone when he got tired of me. I guess he didn't have time to get tired of you."

George's lips disappeared into a thin line.

"I think that we might as well have a talk about it. Let's go to a cafe and talk over it at a table."

George Brant had known that he had not been the first one. Certainly Dave was no virgin when he had met him. But to hear himself called a "Woodard boy"... it made it sound dirty...

He let Mitch lead him to a table, order coffee and Danish for both of them.

"It is because of this that I have come back. I have to understand him. And myself too. I loved him for a while. Then I hated him, then I shrugged him off... Now I only want to make sense of him."

"What is there to make sense of?" George asked numbly.

"You would have understood if he had lived long enough to get rid of you. No, he would not have left you in the cold. He would have arranged for a scholarship, or something like that. And then convinced you that you had to go, for your own sake. So off you'd have gone and he would have found another boy. And read your letters while bedding your replacement."

"He never read any letters in my presence."

"So he didn't. In a way he might have cared for us... but in the end he exploited us... I should be angry.. And yet, if it wasn't for that scholarship he arranged for me, I would not have my house, would not have Marge. I might have ended up in jail. And I was no virgin either when he seduced me...but still...He made me quit drugs, made me think that I could make something of myself."

"And you hate him for it?" George was ironical..

"Funny isn't it? If I was a whore, a hustler, I would be grateful. But I loved him and... When I got my education when I could understand what he was doing, I was sick about it. He seemed to care so much for me. But the bottom like was that I had to... to service him in bed. He was generous, but it was a strict payment. There was no love... just lust, and taking advantage of my need. It is as if there were two of them. The upright dedicated doctor who cared for his patients and for those in need. And the pervert that preyed on impressionable kids."

"They were the same man."

"He made me prostitute myself. He made me care for him, love him, only in the end to have him pay me off and ship me to parts unknown... How could he be so respected in the community when doing that to us? I was so glad when I heard he was dead..."

"Are you still glad?"

"No, not anymore. But still I have this ache... Why couldn't he have loved me as I loved him? Was I just a convenience to him? And you... you are still carrying a torch for him. I wish you stopped. He was not worth it..."

* * *

"Why did Anderson have to be a Republican" Oriana asked, peeved. "it would be much easier if he was a Democrat."

There was no chance that he would win. Amy could believe it but she couldn't. And even Amy, at unguarded moments showed signs of discouragement.

"And he's still the best man for the job." she said angrily.

She stretched herself on the bed. Why did she feel so hurt? Why did she take it so personally?

She laughed without humor at that. Because, if Anderson won, she'd be on the White House beat. If seemed so near her grasp. Become the next Elizabeth Drew, the new Leslie Stahl... Getting to the point where she did not need to spell her last name.

But if he was not President, she would be sent back to page nine...The same deadly beat that she was trying to escape...

The phone rang. She lifted the receiver, sure that it was her publisher reassigning her to another story...

"It is Amy. I have great news."

"What news?" She was too tired to be enthusiastic/

"Chris is out of Wyncliffe. He's all right again."

"Your brother?" A shudder ran through Oriana's body.

"Isn't it wonderful?"

How anybody could call that psychopath wonderful was beyond Oriana. But then Amy was a devoted sister. "Yes... it is wonderful"

"It wasn't Chris who did those things. It was Tom. You never met Chris."

"I know that. Are you planning to see him?"

"Yes."

"I could give you a ride. At least part of the way. I am getting reassigned, and it is in the direction of Collinsport."

It wasn't. In fact, there was no new story, yet. But if she went to Collinsport, she would see Barnabas, and maybe this time he'd take her to bed.

* * *

Phillip laid down on the couch, studying his hands. They were steady, which surprised him. He looked at the bottle b the wall. It was at a safe distance. It would not remain there, of course. But not today. He had nothing to fear today.

Nothing would happen until he was ready and willing. Not until he told Barnabas that he wanted it done.

Which meant never. He would never agree to that... He would not have done to him again.

Yet he was willing to lie down on his side, his face turned away from Barnabas, in position in case it were to happen...

But it would not happen today. Concentrate on it. Nothing would happen today.

"Deep breathing, Phillip" Barnabas said. "it will help you."

"I cannot stop thinking of what will happen next."

"But not today. All you have to do today is just like there and calm yourself."

"And tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow you'll know you can do this, and will have less fear. Fear is your enemy. "

"I know, but." he half lifted himself, only to be pushed back by Barnabas.

"Just like down and breathe...Deep, slow breaths."

"I am sorry to give you this much trouble..."

"That's not real trouble. You should see my other patients."

* * *

Roger grabbed the stake firmly. Barnabas would pay for what he had done to Carolyn He would never hurt her again.

He looked around. It wasn't attracting too much attention. He would be able to make the bus ride to Wyncliffe without incident. And once there, he would get into Julia's clinic and there he would find Barnabas' coffin...

Barnabas would pay for what he had done to Carolyn.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Roger closed the door behind him. Nobody had seen him come in. Now he only had to find Barnabas' coffin.

And Barnabas would never hurt Carolyn again.

Jake went downstairs. He felt silly worrying like that. What could happen to Roxanne? Still, he wanted to check on her.

Roxanne would be gone soon, and things would go back to normal. But until she did, he had to serve her as she wished.

There was no one downstairs. It had just been nerves..

But the door was not fully closed...

Roger opened the coffin. It was not Barnabas. It was the girl who had attacked him and sent him to the hospital. His lips curled as he pulled the stake up, ready to strike...

...But no, he had only brought one stake along, and he had come for Barnabas.

"I'll come later for you, darling." he said to her.

He went out the back door, trying to find Barnabas.

Jake went into the room. No one here...

But Roxanne's coffin lid was up...

He raced to her. She was unharmed.. whoever was here was not after her...

But there was someone here, and he'd better find him.

He listened to the sounds, tracking the footsteps...

Roger found Barnabas at last.

"So you are here." Roger said to him. "I am now going to kill you, and you can do nothing about it."

He wished that Barnabas knew what was going to happen to him.

He would know soon enough when the stake went through him. How painful would it be? He put his hand over the point. It should hurt plenty, he decided.

But not as much as Carolyn was hurting.

He placed the stake over the slow beating heart, picturing to himself who the flesh would be mangled by the wood tearing it.

He lifted the mallet.

And Jake, rushing thought the door, caught his arm, turned him around, and knocked him out with a blow to the jaw,

* * *

Iris felt uneasy. It was easy for everyone to advice that it was best to reconcile with Trask's flock. But they did not know how hard it was for her.

She had to swallow her pride and go see those people. Let's see if she could put the bitterness behind her. Let's see if it was worth it.

She gritted her teeth as her knuckles hit the first door. She hit it again, hoping that there was no one home, and that she could leave, and not subject herself to this.

But the door opened, and as the woman who opened it saw her, her expression changed form the conventional welcome to hostility.

"I don't have anything of yours, Mrs. White" she said coldly. "So why not go on your way?"

"I did not come for that. I want to talk to you."

"Talk to me? About what?"

"I want to say that I am sorry I said the things I said. I shouldn't have carried on a grudge for so long."

The woman's face did not soften. "You called me a thief and kept throwing the police at me. And now you want me to forget it?"

"I was angry with you. And I had a right to be! After all, you tried to kill me, didn't you? And my shop was looted, and it was someone like you who took my things there..."

The woman slammed the door on Iris' face."

* * *

"Georgie?" Dave hovered over the desk where Brant was pretending to work. "Brooding again?"

"Yes." George answered quickly "got plenty to worry about in this job."

"It has to do with what Mitch told you, isn't it?"

"He's a creep."

"He has a point. I did exploit boys sexually."

"Dave, I loved you. I know that you did not love me as much as I loved you. I know that I wasn't the first."

"And you would not have been the last."

"Still, you cared about me. More than anybody had done before. You were good to me. You were good for me."

"I was a sexual predator, Georgie. You have to face up to it."

"If you were, you were decent about it. Maybe that's all anyone has the right to ask."

"You should stop mourning me. I was not the great love of your life. You should find somebody whom you can love and who can love you."

"I already have."

"Ah, yes, Barnabas. But he does not swing that way."

"Do you mind my.. loving him?"

"It tickles my sense of humor the possibility of seeing him getting mounted by my old lover... but you are not going to get him. For your own sake, forget him. And forget me too."

"I can't"

Dave sighed. "I really screwed you up, didn't I?"

* * *

"How are you doing?" Angelique held the phone as if it was truly Sebastian's hand that she was holding.

"I am fine" Sebastian reassured her.

"You don't sound it." she insisted.

"But I am fine."

"Did you have a talk with her?"

"Not yet." Sebastian admitted "anyway. things seem to be getting back to what they were."

"I am worried about you."

"Don't be. There is nothing wrong."

"Just be careful. And if you need help, call me."

* * *

"Are you sure that you want to go to Collinsport with me?"

"Might as well meet your other brother." Oriana shrugged.

"And Barnabas." Amy added, shrewdly.

"Him, too, of course."

Amy nodded "Don't put up your hopes too high. He and Iris are back together again."

"But he can be seduced..."

Amy shook her head in exasperation. She should not have accepted Oriana's idea. Did Barnabas need more woman trouble? Certainly, neither Iris nor Oriana could cause as much trouble as Angelique. Still, it could be plenty of trouble...

* * *

Xavier munched a carrot while going over his accounts. He wasn't doing too bad. Grudgingly he admitted that Sandy Miller's business had proven productive, even if he had taken her in as a result of Barnabas' twisting his arm behind his back.

He wondered if he should have been in such a hurry to get rid of Barnabas. Of course, he now had little time to devote to him, what with Julia Hoffman keeping him busy that way. And he and Redwolf were the best of friends now. So the main reason for keeping Barnabas on the payroll was gone.

Sure, Barnabas could make things easier, here and there. But he could also get on your nerves...

Maybe when he was not so busy and wanted to go back to his U.F.O. study, he could hire Barnabas again...

Then Frank Torrance stepped in.

"Mr. Torrance" Xavier said acidly "what brings you here?"

"I'd like to check your center for violations."

"Are you?"

"It is the law. Look, I let you off easy because Barnabas asked me to. And also because..." his voice lowered " because I felt too guilty to do it. Still, I got a job to do, and since Barnabas isn't here to tell me to lay off, I can start on it.."

Xavier wished he had never fired Barnabas...

* * *

...Roger came here to kill me." Barnabas said calmly.

"Yes. Jake stopped him just in time."

"I owe it to Jake, then." he licked his lips nervously "Where is Roger now?"

"In a padded cell."

"We'll have to let him go, you know that, Julia."

Julia shook her head. "We can get him committed. I can arrange that."

"No." Barnabas said emphatically.

'He almost killed you. Do you want him to try again? And know that you are not the only one that he's threatened."

"We have to let him go." Barnabas insisted.

"Why?" Julia asked with exasperation.

"Because he's all Carolyn has now. We cannot take him away from her."

"He could have killed you. A few more seconds, and he would."

"I know that. But still we can't take Roger from Carolyn."

Julia lifted her hand to her forehead "This is going to be a long night." she said "Roger should be locked up for everybody's safety. Ask George Brant. He will tell you how Derek stopped him from murdering Quentin. Or how he attacked Delia."

"Do you know what this will do to Carolyn, if we put Roger away?"

"It is a risk that has to be taken."

"No!" Barnabas protested "You are not risking Carolyn like that. She lost her child. She lost all hope of having another. She lost her mother. She lost her friends. She lost Vicky. Roger is all she has left now. I am not going to sit here and watch whether taking Roger from here will drive her over the edge."

"She has Quentin." Julia pointed out.

"Quentin does not help any. She needs Roger."

"What if Roger tries to kill you again?"

"We'll keep Roger under surveillance, then. I can arrange it with Derek and Chris. He'll make sure that Roger does not leave Collinsport again."

Julia shook her head.

"I am taking him back" he extended his hand "give me the keys to his cell, Julia."

"This is my clinic."

"I can tear the door open. I believe you do not want that. Give me the key."

Julia threw the keys over the desk. "You are a fool, and if he succeeds in killing you, don't blame me."

"If he does" Barnabas smiled "You have my permission to say 'I told you so' as many times as you want at the funeral."

* * *

Phillip folded the laundry. That job that Barnabas had arranged for him was not the most mentally stimulating you could think of, but it kept him busy. Much better that sitting alone in his room, wondering how long until Barnabas pushed that bottle into his body...

He wondered how much this job at the laundry depended on his further cooperation with the sessions. Barnabas had not said that openly...

Anyway, there was no session tonight. Barnabas had gone off to Collinsport, so tonight he was safe.

Roger had tried to kill Barnabas, and Barnabas had driven him back to Collinsport..

He knew that he should be worried about Barnabas... and in a way he was, but he could not stop thinking that at least tonight he did not have to lie down and watch Barnabas move over to his side and rest one hand on his hip.

He would not do anything else. Not until this simple action stopped frightening him."

But the next steps would come. Not for a nigh or two, but it would come. And the next, and the next.

Until he had to take the bottle in... Just as it had been with Tom.

Barnabas had promised him that it would not be like that, but yet...

...It was the only way he could be free of it.

Why couldn't Barnabas just bite him and get it done with?

Because Barnabas was afraid of pushing him. He had pushed him once and it had led to his breakdown. He would not push Phillip again.

For the first time he wondered how it felt for Barnabas to have to live that way. Biting necks for his supper...

He was not totally happy with it. But usually he was too busy to be unhappy, either. And he had found a way to make it bearable, both for himself and for his victims..

But the word victims did not really apply. He had seen how they responded to him, how they asked him favors, and how they came to him for advice and comfort..

And the way he held them, that they held him... It was a gesture of friendship what he saw, not predation.

...And when he had done it to him... the first time he had gotten extra vacation out of it, and then, just after Tom had attacked him... He had been in the middle of that dark place, and did not know anything except that he was hurting. And then he had been pulled back... It hurt going back, but at the same time he was aware that there was somebody who cared, somebody who felt his pain...

Then he was crying on Barnabas' shoulder. His throat stung, and there was blood smeared on Barnabas' mouth. He did not connect it then... would not connect it for a long time...

Barnabas had done it twice to him. Once for Oriana's sake, and once for his, Phillip's sake.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"You want me to watch Roger?" Derek didn't look happy at all.

"I know that you think that he should be in a padded cell. Still, I am willing to pay you."

"I am not so sure that I want Roger locked up anymore."

"You don't?

"After what Vicky and Nicholas forced me to do to him and Carolyn."

Derek's lips were trembling, and there was a wetness in his eyes...

Automatically Barnabas caught Derek in his arms and rocked him.

"It is all right. It is all over."

"The made me do it...I have never seen anyone hurting so much... I never went for violent stuff. It scared me... and they could turn me inside out like that."

"It wasn't your fault"

For a moment, he almost nicked Derek's throat, as he did for all those who used his shoulder to get emotional support, sympathy, or just someone to hold on to, in exchange for the blood. But he recollected himself. It was no use doing to to Derek.

He just patted him on the back and waited until he had gotten his bearing back.

"Don't be too hard on yourself. They got around people tougher than you or me. Not that I am that tough."

Derek wiped his cheeks. "I will watch over Roger But only at night, you know.."

"I got Chris to watch him by day."

* * *

Roxanne watched Sebastian as he showered. She had not right to do this to him. The moment she had remembered who she was, she should have taken off, left him, saved him that way...

He talked about joining her, not aware of what it meant. He would be doing the same things she did, working for the same creatures who owned her, body and soul. He would kill as she did, on command. He would torture when _they_ thought it necessary. He would mutilate, as Carolyn had been mutilated...

How long could he take it? How long before he began to die inside? How long before he found refuge in drugs, as she had done?

And afterwards...

She could tell what kind of existence it would be for him. The same it had been for her.

She had no right to inflict that on him...

Yet she could not let him go... If only it could be as it was before, when it did not matter if she drank or not when they embraced, when it cost her nothing to moderate her demands. But now there was a pain inside her that would not allow her to keep control.

She knew where that pain came from. _they_ had given it to her, to make sure _they_ recruited Sebastian.

She moved to the window. She couldn't stay inside, with him so close and willing.

Flying did not calm her. The idea of Sebastian doing the things she was forced to do would not let her go.

"Does it have to be him?" She asked aloud "Won't somebody else do?"

She swept down, watching closely the street below.

"If I give you one of these, will you let Sebastian go?"

The people below kept walking, unaware of her presence.

"How many of them does it take to buy back Sebastian? How many of them do you want? I will give them to you."

The street was now deserted, except of one man, walking slowly.

"He's young and strong. You can use him."

She glided to him, changed shape before she touched the ground and threw her arms around the man.

He began to scream, but her fangs slashed him and she was now in control of his mind.

She fed hard. It didn't calm her pain, but it seemed to. It was more than hunger, than need. It was him or Sebastian.

She let him go. She wondered how much she had taken. He would not make the transition yet. She had to find a quiet place for that, where it would be safe.

The man's eyes moved, still unfocused.

'I will come back to you, you understand?"

"I understand."

"You will do whatever I ask you to do."

"Whatever your ask..." the man echoed in a hollow voice.

"You can go now."

She watched him walk away. She repressed a feeling of pity for the man. It had to be done.

'He will adjust, as I did."

She rose and flew back home. Sebastian would be waiting for her...

Tonight she would be able to embrace him without worrying about being out of control. Tonight it would be like it had been before.

Vaguely she wondered how many men she'd have to deliver before _they_ would let Sebastian off the hook.

* * *

"Wool gathering again? Megan asked Angelique, with more than a bit of irritation. "you are late with your reports again."

"I am not" Angelique protested "and don't call me kid. I am older than you are."

"You certainly don't act it."

"I am worried about Sebastian."

Megan lifted her hands in a gesture of mock anger "I thought I told you to butt off."

"It isn't right for her to do this to him."

"It wasn't right for you to do what you did to her, either. You took Barnabas and her life from her. You can at least leave her Sebastian."

"You don't understand."

"I understand enough. You messed that kid real bad, and now that she's got something going for her, you want to take that away from her."

"She's not a kid anymore!"

"And whose fault is it?"

Tammy got up and went to Joe.

"Might as well call it a day." she said. "There's not going to be any business tonight. They are going to do nothing but argue about Roxanne Drew.

"Well, your place or mine?"

"Mine. The TV has better reception."

Later, as they watched from the floor Gilda Radner do her Roseanna Roseannadanna routine. Tammy felt the tension she had been under - ever since she had learned about the Leviathan - drain from her.

"It is strange, all of this." she said, running her fingers through Joe's hair.

"What's strange?"

"Everything. This job of ours. The people we work with. The fact that we don't find them strange at all. That I find I can talk with Megan easier than with anyone else.."

"Better than me?" Joe sounded mock-hurt.

"No" Tammy gave Joe a playful tap on the chin "You know what I mean, dummy. She's got my number. Do you remember what a pain in the neck I used to be?"

"Pain in the neck?" Joe guffawed.

"Well, Megan talked me out of it. I don't think I would have paid attention to anyone else. But she got around me. She's quite a lady, our boss."

"What do you think about Angelique?"

"Well, she came as Miss Piggy to Barnabas' party. And Barnabas was Kermit. Only in this case people got hurt. Like me."

"Do you find it hard to work with her?"

"Not so much now. Oh, well, as you said, this is a weird situation we are in. The people closest to us are characters of the Late, late movie. And we can share so much with them."

"Do you think we should make friends with more... normal people?"

"I don't know... they still look at me as if I was going to go bonkers again."

"Yes. And since there aren't too many blacks around, I am sort of a social project for them. Be nice to a colored person week."

"Colored person? They still use that term?"

"They haven't got the news yet."

Joe was silent for some minutes, then asked. "What about that guy, Jake?"

"Jake?"

"At Wyncliffe. He seemed to like you."

"Yes. He did."

"Are you interested in him?"

"No."

"I wonder. Him and you, you seemed... I don't know, sharing something."

"We are both black. We do not have to explain certain things to each other."

"I wonder... if you weren't' in this town, in this business, would you have picked Jake over me?"

"Maybe. And if things would have been different, would you have preferred to have Representative Evans instead of me?"

* * *

"It didn't work." Iris commented as she undressed.

"What didn't work?:" Barnabas asked, lying over the bed.

"My reconciliation with Reverend Trask's flock. I was pleasant, polite, and everything and that woman, she was... impossible."

Barnabas doubted that she had been that polite, but had learned to keep his mouth shut about certain things. "Maybe I should talk to the Reverend about that."

"Don't bother. It isn't worth it. I can't be all sweetness and light. I got a temper and they rub me the wrong way."

He kissed her and made her lie with him.

It was a while before they could speak again. Finally he knew he had to say something.

"I don't want you to be sweetness and light. I don't want to catch diabetes. But still you should try to make peace.."

He did not push...

If only he did not sense that this affair was coming to an end, and his choice was whether it tapered off or blew up in a big explosion...

"How about you?" she asked. "Doesn't Julia object to your taking another day off?"

The problem with a dying love affair is that it sometimes it takes a while to die... And in the meantime you have to go through the motions. He wanted to part friends with Iris. One dramatic rupture in a lifetime was enough for him.

"I decided to let Phillip take an extra day off without his having to bargain for it. And if Julia gets, angry, well, it has been a while since she threatened to fire me. It is bad for me when she stops. I end up believing I have job security."

"Is Phillip getting better?"

"Yes. slowly, but steadily."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"I failed" Roger confessed to Carolyn "I couldn't kill him."

Carolyn sat up on the bed. "Kill who?"

"Barnabas I wanted him to pay for hurting you. I wanted to make sure he didn't' do anything more to you. But I couldn't... If I had been a little quicker, if I had found the right coffin first, he'd be dead now. I had the stake right over his heart. I could have driven it in..."

"At least you tried." Carolyn pressed Roger's hand. "Don't worry. We'll get him yet."

"Couldn't you throw him out of the Old House.?"

"It belongs to Mother. As long as he pays the rent to her he has a right to stay there. Well, there are other ways."

* * *

Barnabas led Phillip into the room.

"I am sorry I was away. There was an emergency"

"Roger." Phillip sat on the cot "Is it true that he tried to kill you?"

"Came awfully close to it. If Jake hadn't been around..."

Phillip could not repress a shudder.

"You would have missed me?" Barnabas asked in a half-mocking way.

"I would. And on top of being fired by Davenport..."

"Well, it was time for me to leave it. I had done all that was worth doing about it."

"And you got too close to Munsungan for Redwolf's taste."

"Yes." Barnabas smiled "That put me in Redwolf's hate list."

Phillip said nothing. He knew that he should be lying down again and start on the breathing exercises, but he hesitated. He stole a nervous glance at the bottle.

"It has a rather long neck" he said, in a low voice.

"Yes, But it is narrower than other bottles. Kenneth told me it was best to have a narrow neck."

"Kenneth?" Phillip jumped off the cot. "You told him that you were going to do this?"

"I wouldn't try to do this without some expert advice first. I did not want to hurt you by doing it wrong."

"But... but I thought you'd not tell anyone."

"Phillip. Kenneth is a doctor. He knows about things like this. You can trust him."

"But... do we have to do it at all? Is there no other way? One less... embarrassing?"

"Yes, we have to do it. I will not say that the idea of inserting that bottle in you pleases me. In fact, it disgust me more than a little. But I know that it has to be done. I wish that Roxanne wasn't here, trying to get at your memories. I wish you didn't have those hidden memories that they want so much to retrieve. I wish there was a better way of doing it. But there isn't. Not in the time we have available.:

"Why do you say 'inserting"? What you'll be doing is shoving that thing up..."

"Insertion is the correct term. What you say has emotional connotations that are simply not true."

"Are you sure there is no other way?" Phillip begged him.

"I sure wish there was. But Roxanne will not give us the time. She not only wants the information that you have locked in your mind. She wants to hurt me, and she knows that she can hurt me through you. I want to keep you safe,

"But why this?"

Barnabas sighed and began his lecture "The information you have has something to do with a bottle. But at this moment all that a bottle means to you is the assault you suffered from Tom. I want to destroy that connection in your mind. You will still have to deal with the fact that you were assaulted. But you won't be focusing on... on the specifics of it anymore."

"You seem rather eager to do this to me." Phillip said sullenly.

"Yes. I am" Barnabas knew that he had to talk about it sooner or later. "Why do you think it is so?"

"Because... because..."

"Come, say it. Or do you want me to say it?"

Phillip shook his head, suddenly cowed.

"All right, what does the choice of treatment have to say about our sexual preferences?"

Phillip nodded, not daring to speak.

"That's a tough one." Barnabas sat next to Phillip, not touching him in any way. "I have no conscious desire to make love to you. Maybe there is an unconscious one. Maybe that's why I couldn't think of anything better. But the main reason why I'm determined to do this, why you are here now, is because I saw you screaming in your padded cell. Facing up to my doubts about myself is a lot easier than seeing you that way."

"What about me? Could I...?"

"Be turned on by the experience? It would happen, but it is very unlikely. I am not that skillful."

"But it could?"

"You have to decide for yourself what is most important. All I can tell you is from my own experience. For many years I thought that being a vampire was the worst thing that ever happened to me. That could ever happen. Then I met Jeb Hawkes. I was given a choice. Deliver Carolyn to them, or go back to flying by night" he smiled, sadly, as he remembered "that's when I found out that there are worse choices than vampirism."

"If I came out with... tendencies I could get treatment for them, couldn't I?"

"As an outpatient."

"Well, better an outpatient with homosexual tendencies than a straight basket case."

Barnabas agreed to this.

"I'd say that it is worth the risk." Phillip know that he had lingered long enough and that he should lie down. Still he wanted to say something more.

"When Tom did it, it hurt." he admitted, surprised to find it so easy. "but that was not the worst."

"I thought so."

"He taunted me. He laughed at me. He told the girls what he was going to do and made sure they got a good view of it." Phillip hugged himself "I thought that I couldn't stand it, but I had to, anyway. And then, when it took effect... I could not stop it... I tried but could not..."

"That was when you soiled yourself."

"They were watching and I could not stop it... And he laughed at me." Phillip sobbed.

Barnabas let Phillip's head rest on his shoulder. "He won't do that anymore."

Phillip wept, reliving those brutal hours he had spent a s the helpless victim of Tom Jennings.

"Let it out." Barnabas said "let it all out."

Phillip kept crying. letting out his anger and frustration at his humiliation. He felt again Tom's cruel hands on him. He saw the anguished eyes of Amy and Oriana as they witnessed what was being done to him..

Then he could not cry anymore. He rubbed his face against Barnabas' wet shoulder for the last time and lifted his head.

"I am sorry I broke down like this."

"Don't be. It is a good thing you did."

"Is it?"

"It is the first time you have talked about it. I wondered if you ever could."

"That's good."

"It must be hurting you a lot less to be able to talk about it."

"It still hurts."

Barnabas took Phillip by the shoulders and pushed him back gently.

"Lie down, Phillip. Just on your back." he reassured him " We are not going to do anything else today. We got enough stirred up already."

Phillip extended himself. He felt tired and somewhat empty.

Barnabas brushed off the hair from Phillip's forehead "Are you willing to listen to one thing or two I have to say?"

"Yes." Phillip felt his body sinking into the cot."

"You have found what was the truly terrible part of your assault. Not the pain. Not even the sexual connotations of it. "he could not resist an amused grin. "It might surprise you, but I doubt that Tom even thought of it in a sexual way. His development was arrested at the pre-sexual stage. No, the truly terrible part of it was that you were helpless in the hands of a psychopath who could do anything he wanted with you, and did. There was nothing you could do to stop him, and what he did to you depended only on his imagination."

Phillip nodded, too tired to talk.

"Bottles had nothing to do with it. Even the way he used the bottle had nothing to do with it. You understand that?"

Phillip nodded again.

"Consciously you know it." Barnabas continued to expose "The subconscious is another matter. As I said once before, the subconscious is very stupid. It takes it a long time to get any idea, but once it does nothing can pry it away.

Another nod from Phillip.

"We have to get the idea to your subconscious that bottles are not dangerous by themselves. Not to the point that you can't talk or thing about them..." Barnabas hesitated before speaking again. "I can't promise that there will be no pain. I will try, but that might not be good enough. But I will not humiliate you. I will not derive pleasure from your hurt. Is that good enough to you?"

"You are the doctor."

Barnabas glanced nervously to his sides. "Better not let Julia hear you. She always reminds me that I have no degree."

* * *

Chris was throwing feed to his chickens. Somehow they seemed to have done all right while he was away. Joe and Tammy had managed them quite well, despite their grumbling that they didn't know the first thing about it.

It felt strange to be in so prosaic a setting. It wasn't so long ago that he had battled primeval monsters for the sake of the whole human race. Today, he tended chickens.

There was a lesson in there, somewhere.

One thing had changed. He had to live down what Tom had done. Even if people knew that it had not been him who had committed those acts, he still had his brother's face and that couldn't be changed.

He heard a car come up the road and stop by his house.

Curious he lifted his head, and saw Amy getting out of the car.

"Amy!"

"I came back as soon as I found out you were out.!"

"Amy!" he repeated, embracing her. He had missed her while he was in Wyncliffe, waiting for Megan's instructions. It had been safest to have her away, but it hadn't been easy.

"Who's your friend?" he looked at the woman who stood by the car, a camera hanging from her shoulder.

"Oriana Falchi."

"Fallaci?" he asked bemused

"F.A.L.C.H.I." Oriana said. It was strange to realize that Chris did not know her at all.

Chris studied her. There was strained expression to the face. The same he had seen in Sandy.

"You have met Tom, I gather." he said, resignedly "I am sorry. I would like to invite you inside, but I am not sure you want to."

Oriana hesitated. "I...I..."

"Well, you could stay at the hotel."

"Or I could go to the Old House."

"There is no one there now?"

"Not even Phillip?" Oriana asked surprised.

"Phillip's in Wyncliffe. He is getting better and Barnabas says that he can be discharged soon."

There was an awkward moment, in which no one said anything. Eventually Oriana spoke.

"I gather that Barnabas is at Wyncliffe too."

"Yes, he is. Maybe you could stay with Frances." Amy offered.

"No." Oriana said, "I'll just go to the hotel. I have to be on my way, anyway."

She got into her car and drove away.

"I guess that Tom scared her badly." Chris said.

"She has the hots for Barnabas, and she found out that he's out of town..."

"No. It was Tom. She saw Tom in my face."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Roxanne waited, alone in the room He would come tonight. Then, maybe, she would be able to keep Sebastian.

She refused to think about what she was doing to that unknown man. That was the price for Sebastian's life and she would pay it.

She heard the steps coming up. It was him. She tried to remember his face, but couldn't. It didn't matter. She probably would not see him again.

The man came in. Yes, it was him. One of those men she had chosen in the night.

The man let himself be led to the wall and knelt as he was instructed to do.

Roxanne bit him. Hard. She had drunk often enough from him, so once more should be enough.

There was a beginning of resistance as the man felt weakness claim him, but Roxanne had anticipated that. She just kept the man's arms pinned as she drank faster.

The man went limp. Roxanne checked the pulse. There was still some, but it would not last long.

She drew more blood to make sure he would make the transition tonight, the released him.

The man collapsed.

"He's strong. He's trainable" she spoke aloud "you can use him.".

She laid him on the floor, fully extended, noticing how the breathing was becoming more and more strained.

When the breathing stopped she stepped back. "You can take him now." she said.

Light enveloped the man, then his body became transparent, It remained so for a few seconds. Then it was gone.

"Can I have Sebastian, now?" Roxanne asked.

She stood there in silence, waiting.

"What do you mean, not yet? What else do you want?"

She bit her lips angrily. She felt powerless, cheated... yet she still had to do something.

"All right. I'll give more of them to you. And many as you want I'll give you."

* * *

Vicky lied on the bed after the nurse had turned her around.

"Still no change?" Barnabas said, coming into the room.

"None."

"Can I stay with her, alone?'

"Sure."

After the nurse had left, Barnabas stared into Vicky's eyes.

"Vicky, if you are still in there, if you can somehow understand, let me know."

Her eyes were like tunnels, so empty they were... he could fall inside them...

He felt the pull of them and reacted to it.

He could not fall in there... what if he could not find the way back?

But no, he was being fanciful... it could not happen that way...

He stared hard at Vicky. There was no will there that he could bend to his own. Only emptiness...

No. The tunnels were real. There was a vacuum inside Vicky, sucking in whoever peered too close.

He could not do it... he would be lost in there become a vegetable himself... What good would it do Julia to have two vegetables in her charge?

"I want to help you, Vicky" he spoke softly "But I am afraid. Forgive me, but I am afraid of you."

But he had promised Peter that he would try to help her...

He had no right to deny this to Vicky, to Peter... Even if it scared him.

He grabbed Vicky, lifted her head and plunged into her eyes.

...There were mists around him. There were no walls that he could see...and he was being pulled forward.

"Vicky!" he called "Vicky!"

She was there. He could feel a presence there. But where was she?

"Vicky!"

Could she recognize him? Could she recognize herself?

If only he could see... He tried to push away the thick cotton accumulating over his eyes, but it was as if he had no hands anymore...

Vicky could be there, and he would not see her.

He tried to sense her, tried to tune his mind to her mental pattern...

It was a lost cause, he felt. He hadn't taken blood from her since 1968. And then he had been temporarily cured. Even if he somehow still remembered, what was actually left of that mental pattern?

But that was all he had to work on.

Something stirred next to him. He couldn't see it, couldn't even know if there was actually anyone there...

"Vicky!" he called again.

"Wa.. wa.."

Just a small keening sound... like a child weeping.

It was Vicky. but he couldn't go to her. He strained against the wall that wasn't there. He pushed at it, trying to see through it.

A vague shape took form before him... A figure curled into a fetal position.

"Vicky! Vicky! Wake up, Vicky!"

The mists closed again and she was lost to him. He couldn't hear her weeping...

And he was being pushed forward.

He fought it, tried to get back to Vicky.

But the pull was stronger.

He screamed, flailed his nonexistent arms... tried to avoid being pulled further.

...it was difficult for him to think...

Then the tug came. He was being pulled back by some unseen force, like a lifeline someone had thrown him.

Blindly he grabbed it, and began inching back towards his own body.

The light in the room blinded him for a few seconds, then he was looking at Peter Bradford.

"You pulled me back?"

"You seemed to need help"

"Yes, I did." he realized now how foolhardy he had been, plunging ahead like that...

"You found her?"

"Yes. I did. Regressed to infancy" he shivered remembering where he had found her. "It is dark there, and easy to get lost."

"Do you think that you can bring her back?"

"I...I am not sure I can. But I will try. I will go on trying. I can't leave her like that."

"I know you won't"

Still, suppose that Vicky was pulled back... she was now only a frightened baby. She might still be one, unable to care for herself, when she got back.

He did not speak of it. Neither did Peter.

But both knew of it.

* * *

Anselm Trask closed the Bible. "Does anyone have anything to say about the Parable of the Prodigal Son?" he asked of the study group.

None of them offered, somewhat embarrassed to be the first one to speak aloud.

"All right. I have something to say about it. And also about something that happened here not long ago. I was thinking of the father, how willing he was ready to forgive even before the son could say how sorry he was. I wonder how many of us would to the same.

"We would" one woman said, without conviction.

"Yes. We all hope we would... the truth... the truth is that few of us manage it. I have been as guilty as anyone else in that respect."

"But we have..." the woman protested.

"I understand that Mrs. Iris White tried to make peace with one of you and was rebuffed. Whoever it was, and she knows how she is, refused even to listen to her."

"But that's not the same thing!" the guilty woman said, her face red.

"No, it isn't" Sandy got up with cold fury. "I can tell you something of what the Reverend is talking about. After the riot, you know how things went for all of us. I could not sell my work, and Mr. Loomis was about to repossess my sewing machine. I was desperate and I couldn't think of anything except selling myself to Barnabas Collins. It tried to. But he would have none of it. He just dried my tears, gave me what I wanted, for free, and then came back to make sure no one of us would have to go through that again."

"You would say that he is more forgiving than we are?" the woman who had spoken first said.

"Yes. That's exactly it. And Mrs. White is not the one who should apologize. We are."

"They are not like us... they are not normal human beings."

"Neither am I." Sandy said with malice "or have you forgotten already?"

"We... we did not mean."

"You mean it, all of you. I can hear what you say behind my back." Sandy paused, then added with bitterness "It could have been any of you. Tom could have chosen any of you. But it was me..."

"You are one of us, Sandy."

"No" Sandy said, clearly "Not anymore. I grow fur on the nights of the full moon. When I was a fool who trusted her children to Sister Kira, I was all right. When I joined a mob to commit crimes that were left unpunished, I was all right. But then, I got kidnapped by Tom Jennings and rescued by Barnabas Collins, and I am not all right anymore. Well, if that is the way you want it, it is fine with me."

* * *

Julia studied the patient file. Somewhere along the line somebody had made the wrong decision and now all attempts at therapy made things worse.

Maybe she should let Barnabas try his hand at it. Maybe he could tell her what they were doing wrong."

She resisted the idea, even knowing that she would do that. It irritated her how Barnabas told her her own business. And worse, when he was right... that was too much, considering that he did not even had one measly pre-med course...

The phone dragged her away from her thoughts.

"This is Julia Hoffman Anderson."

"This is George Brant. I have a problem. Or rather, we all have a problem.

"A problem?"

"The chief of police at Wyncliffe just contacted me. He wanted information on the attacks on women from 1967., 1968, 1970..."

"You mean the ones that Barnabas was responsible for?"

"Yes. Seems he has something similar there."

"But it couldn't be Barnabas..."

"Of course it isn't him. They are all men. And he knows to leave them in better shape than these men were found in. No, you better have a talk with Roxanne."

"It couldn't be Roxanne either. She's a recovered addict. For her, doing that is playing Russian 'Roulette."

"It is her. I have a hunch and my hunches are rarely wrong. She does not impress me as a very stable personality. She is the best candidate for it."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Today's the big day, isn't it?" Phillip tried to sound brave and nonchalant.

"Yes." Barnabas squeezed Phillip's arm affectionately "But not if you tense up this way."

"I am relaxed."

"No, you are not. Just sit, close your eyes, and think of nothing at tall."

Phillip obeyed, feeling how his body became heavier with each breath.

"Now you are relaxed enough. We can go on"

All the steps that he had learned to accept in the previous sessions were repeated. As he lay there, breathing through his mouth, Phillip wondered how easily he accepted them now.

"This will be somewhat painful" Barnabas spoke. "If it is real bad, speak up. But if you can stand it, try breathing deeper, and relaxing and see if that eases it up."

"I see."

He began to tense up. Barnabas waited until the tenseness was gone and the breathing back to a regular pattern.

"This better work" he said "for your sake as well as mine. If it doesn't, Julia will have my head. Literally. When a therapist fails, she cuts off his head and shrinks it, just like those South American Indians. She has a big collection of them. The guy who built an Orgone box. The one who tried Primal Scream therapy. The est one...

There was pain, Phillip could not deny it. But he felt it remotely, slowly sinking in his cot, distracted by Barnabas' patter. Breathing deeper did ease it up...

"Well, you can talk again

"You mean, it is all in?"

"Yes..." It had been a miracle... he was so sure that at any moment Phillip would arch up, screaming in pain, hollering at him to take it out...

But it had not happened.

"So it is over..":

"I have to take it out, yet. Do not move..."

Then the bottle was on the counter again, and Phillip was turned around, trembling.

"Is it over? Really over now?"

"Yes. I think it is." Barnabas felt his body loosen up. After all that talk about Phillip relaxing, he had neglected to do the same himself. He had been as taut as a piano wire...

But now he was retuning to normal. And he felt hungry again.

"So that's the end of it." Phillip picked up the bottle causally. "You were right. There is nothing to be afraid of. I feel so good." he tried to hug Barnabas who moved away.

"What is the matter?"

"I have not fed yet. And I know you don't like it for me to do it to you..."

"After today?" Phillip opened his collar. "go ahead. You earned it ten times over today."

* * *

Roxanne sat on Julia's desk. "I hope that Barnabas gets that information of out Phillip quick."

"He's doing just that." Julia fought to keep her calm.

"Is it today?" Roxanne's eyes took an ugly look "You mean that he's actually shoving it up...?"

"There is no need to be crude." Julia reproved Roxanne.

"I will be as crude as I want." She leered. "I would love to see the two of them now. Maybe next time they won't need a bottle..."

"Don't say anything about it."

Roxanne smiled poisonously "Don't you dare give me orders."

Julia was aghast. "You are actually enjoying this."

"There is not much else that I can enjoy."

Julia shook her head, dismayed.

"So act sorry. Put on your guilty act. Maybe you learned it from Barnabas. He does sit so well."

"You do hate us..."

"You are so perceptive."

Julia rubbed her forehead. "Maybe George is right. in what he says about you."

"George who?"

"George Brant, the sheriff."

"And what does he have to say?"

"He said that there have been vampire attacks in Wyncliffe. And he suspects you."

"So what else is new?"

"You don't deny it?'"

"Should I?"

"And you don't plan to stop?"

"It is none of your business."

"But it is my business."

"Of course, it might make problems for you and Barnabas. Well, tough luck to both of you."

"But why do it at all?"

"I have reasons that are of no interest for you."

"They could be hooked. It could happen with them as it happened with Maggie."

"If they do, you will just have to keep me supplied with drugs. It is not difficult for you to arrange it."

"I can't let you continue."

"Can't? And how are you going to stop me?"

Julia said nothing while Roxanne's face twisted. "I know what you are thinking. You plan to tell Megan how I engineered Phillip's breakdown."

Julia stood up, fear in her face... the way Roxanne was looking at her...

"Don't try denying it, doctor. I know how your mind works."

"I wasn't going to..." Julia backed away, trying to avoid Roxanne's gaze.

"Come here!" Roxanne twisted Julia's arm behind her back making her fall on her knees.

"I haven't..."

Roxanne's hand was over Julia's mouth, stiffing her screams as Roxanne bit angrily on the exposed throat.

"Please don't take too much." Julia thought. "Please..."

But Roxanne would. That had been her threat, and she would carry it out.

* * *

Sandy lied in bed, waiting for Herb to join her. Why didn't he join her?

She knew the answer to that.

Early on she had regretted her outburst at the Bible class. But now... Now she wanted to repeat the same words, and worse.

"Aren't you coming to bed? she asked Herb.

He didn't answer. He didn't need to answer.

He did not want her. Not since Tom Jennings had touched her.

Why did she put up with it? What was she trying to prove?

* * *

Phillip had finally gone to sleep. Barnabas got out of the room, a quiet, proud smile on his lips.

It was done. it was over. All that worry, all that heartache had finally paid off.

And he had not told Julia yet that Phillip had made it.

He opened the door and saw her, collapsed on the floor.

"Julia!" he ran to her, turning over her unconscious body, noticing the twin punctures on her neck.

"Roxanne?" he knew it was her. She had been threatening something like this.

Julia's pulse was weak, but still there. But not much longer...

He lifted her. He had to take her to Collinsport. She needed not only medical attention but a guard to keep Roxanne away from her. And he could only arranged for adequate protection in Collinsport. He would get Megan or Chris for the job.

He put Julia in the car. The pulse still held With luck it would last the trip. Without luck.

He refused to think about it. It would not happen. Julia would get to the Collinpsort hospital. She would get well. and Chris and Megan would break Roxanne's arms if she tried coming for Julia again.

* * *

Roxanne saw Barnabas drive away with Julia from a window upstairs. Her lips curved into a cruel smile.

"Barnabas is gone with Julia, isn't he?" She asked Jake.

'Yes. He has."

"And Phillip is still here."

"Good. Take him to a padded cell, I will interrogate him now. Make sure no one disturbs us."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Talk about the bottle." Roxanne shook Phillip "Tell me where the Ring is."

"I don't remember" Phillip protested.

"You do remember. You are just being stubborn."

Phillip looked at the padded walls of the cell with desperation.

"Don't waste time. Barnabas is not here to save you. You will have to tell me all you know."

"But I can't..."

"You can scream all you like. No one will hear you." she pulled at his hair "Tell me about the bottle and the Ring."

"I don't know anything."

Roxanne slapped him so hard that he fell on the floor.

"Yes. You do know." She bent over him. "And you are going to tell me."

Phillip shook his head "I...I can't"

Her fist hit his nose. "Don't play those tricks on me. I am not Barnabas. You know what I want, and you are going to give it to me."

She could bite him and force the information out of him that way. She would, probably, at the end. But she preferred to bruise him first. Wanted Barnabas to see the bruises when he came back.

"You know where the Ring is, Phillip. Tell me!.

"I don't know!"

Roxanne hit him. And again. And again. "Do you remember now or do I have to hit you more?"

* * *

It was close to dawn when Barnabas opened the door to the Old House. It seemed so big and dark...

It was such a lonely place now... and its size made it even more lonely...

The house was empty... and he found it strange.

He saw the water stains in front of the stove. They might be from the time he had been trying to warm up Oriana after he found her in his room... He smiled fondly at her memory. The beginning had been rocky, of course... but then that was nothing new for him...

But Oriana wasn't around now.

Did he actually need that big a house? Couldn't an efficiency apartment do as well for him? His needs were not that great. And he had to think of the future.

As long as Liz lived, he could have the house. But after that, Carolyn would evict him.

Or Liz could leave the house to him. And then the property taxes would wipe him out.

Those water stains...

Julia would be all right. Kenneth had decided that she needed to rest several days. And Megan would protect her from Roxanne.

...Roxanne...

Why did he hang on to the house? Did he need all those rooms that were never used? It had been his home once. There were remainders of the past in there... but now they were just clutter. He never looked at them, to tell the truth...

Maybe he should let the Historical Society have the house...

...The water stains... Roxanne...

The water stains did not come from where he had warmed Oriana. They had been caused when he had washed Phillip after Tom Jennings had been through with him...

Phillip was at Wyncliffe. With Roxanne...

Roxanne had gotten to Phillip. He knew, had known all along while he waited for news of Julia..

And he had refused to know it... Why?

He had to take care of Julia... he had shut out all other information...

And Phillip was in the power of Roxanne...

And dawn was minutes away...

He would have to wait until the next dusk. Fortunately Roxanne could do nothing during the day, either...

* * *

Sandy slammed the door behind her husband.

"I don't need you!" she shouted "I don't need any of you!"

She got to the car and drove away towards the Haskell detective agency, as fast as she could trust herself to go.

Angelique saw her coming, her face all flustered.

"Anything I can help you with?"

"I want to join the agency. I want to be one of you."

"Mrs. Miller..."Angelique tried to calm her.

"I have left my husband. I am one of you. I want to make it official. Can you hire me?"

"No, I can't"

"But Ms. Graham can, can't she?"

"Calm down first, Mrs. Miller. You know that Dr. Hoffman should be able to cure you."

"I don't' want a cure! I want to stay with you!"

Chris got up from his desk and went to her. "Why do you say that?" he asked, crouching by her side.

"Because... because I have nothing to go back to."

"You have family, friends..."

"I don't have any!" She said with anger "my husband won't touch me. My friends talk behind my back..."

"It is hard for them to understand what happened to you." Chris said softly.

"They act as if it was my fault. If it hadn't been for us they probably would not be alive today. But it makes no difference to them."

"What about your children?"

"Herb will never let me have them again. No judge will award me custody."

Chris shrugged and spread his hands." Well, I guess you can stay with us." he looked up at Angelique "can you put her up for a few days until she finds something more permanent?"

* * *

By the time Barnabas got to Wyncliffe he knew that it was too late, that Roxanne had had plenty of time to work Phillip over. Yet some part of him believed that Phillip would be all right.

Would Phillip be strong enough to stand Roxanne's probing into his memory? Or would he go back to... to that screaming thing in the padded cell?

He entered the clinic with foreboding... He had not asked much lately. Could he at least have Phillip...?"

He stopped by Phillip's door. There was a soft moaning coming from inside.

What had Roxanne done to him? He was afraid to open the door. To find Phillip incoherent again, his eyes empty...

He pushed the door open.

"Phillip?"

Phillip lifted his head. His face was bruised but his eyes were clear.

"Phillip" Barnabas said with relief "are you all right?"

"No. I am not all right. She used me for a punching bag."

"Roxanne?""

"Who else? Where were you?"

"Roxanne attacked Julia. I had to get her away, to Collinsport. She would not have been safe in Wyncliffe... I should have taken you with me. It all happened so fast..."

"It hurt."

"How far did she go?"

"She got the information she wanted out of me. She now knows where the Ring is."

"She won't get to you again. I swear it."

"She will." Phillip showed Barnabas his fresh wounds.

"I will keep her away from you. Just wait for me to come back."

He called Jake in. "Call Miss Drew and tell her that I want her in Julia's office. Quick."

He sat at the desk, trying to control his temper.

"Do you want to see me?" Roxanne asked insolently.

"Yes. I just saw Phillip."

"I told you that I would get the information out if him, one way or another."

"Luckily he wasn't seriously hurt. Do you have what you wanted?"

"Yes."

"Good. Julia made me interim director until she comes back. And this is going to be my first decision. You get out of here and stay out."

Roxanne snickered.

"I haven't told Megan yet how and why Phillip had that breakdown. But I will in a couple of hours. If you are smart, you'll be as far away from here as you can."

"I see." then she added with venom. "You are getting rid of me again."

"If you choose to put it that way, yes. You probably have something to do with the information you got out of Phillip. Go and do it."

"You'll get your wish."

"And don't get any ideas about Julia. Her room will be a good place to find Megan."

"Charming. Using a vampire to keep watch against another."

"As you wish. I don't feel like arguing with you. You are right, it is my fault. And in two hours I'll make that phone call to Megan."

* * *

Julia covered the cross with her hand as Megan came in.

"You all right, doctor?" Megan asked.

"Yes, thank you."

Megan cocked her head. "What happened to your cross?"

"Oh, I covered it. To make you more comfortable."

"To make me comfortable? Doctor, I am not being paid to keep myself comfortable. I am being paid to keep you safe. And keeping that cross in view will make my job a lot easier."

* * *

Barnabas listened to Phillip

"It was a big place, bathed in blue light. There was always this rumbling sound. And there were two...two creatures always moving about."

"Could you tell where you were?"

"No, but when I mentioned the rumbling sound and the blue light, Roxanne's face lit up."

"Well, she won't be back. Those creatures, what were they like?"

"Reptilian. Even to their forked tongues. Their talk was merely clicks and hisses." Phillip became paler as he spoke "the bottles were arranged in rows. In each bottle there was a man or a woman, trapped there... Victoria Winters was one of them... Every now and then the creatures would go to a bottle and take the captive out."

Phillip shivered remembering the screams, the struggles, the glowing ring.

"They had this iron ring" Phillip continued, his voice lower "They heated it white red, just before they came for any of us. We knew it and we screamed, tried to grab the walls of the bottle to avoid being pulled out. But it was not use. They always got the one they wanted. They screamed and twisted as they were dropped through the ring, but they could not prevent it. Then, when the ring was at the level of their throat, the screams stopped. We could see the frightened eyes a few moments more, and then, the eyes reached the level of the ring... Afterwards, they were... changed."

"Did you see Victoria Winters go through the ring?"

"No. Her turn must have come after I escaped."

"How did you escape?"

"I managed to tilt the bottle enough for it to fall and crack... I ran into the crack, and could get out. They ran after me. They nearly caught me... But I found this hole. I did not stop to think about what would happen if I jumped in... I just jumped.

"And then?"

"The next thing I knew I was facing this gun and two men who called me Urrey."

"Yes. And we know the rest of that story."

"They were Leviathan... We though that it was over, but it wasn't"

"No. It wasn't. But now that Roxanne knows where the Ring is, she will see that it is destroyed."

"Roxanne..."

"She will not hurt again. Nor the Leviathan either."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Phillip, how do you feel?"

"A lot better." Phillip smiled widely "It was tough, with Roxanne, but I found I could take it. I have no desire to scream nor hit my head on the wall."

"Good, you are cured, as far as I am concerned."

"So I can be discharged?"

"Well, no. You need a doctor's signature for that and you know that I have no degree. But when Julia comes back, she will do it. In the meantime, how would you like to make some money?'"

"Some money, how?"

"There are plenty of repairs that need doing around here, and I cannot get the staff to make them. If you do them, I'll see that you get paid, even if I have to dip into the petty cash for it."

* * *

Sandy was calmer. But still adamant in her refusal to leave.

"I belong with you now." she insisted.

Megan looked nervously at her watch. She should be relieving Chris as the hospital by now. But Sandy would not be put off any more.

"Do you really want to be one of us? Or is it that you think that you have no other choice? Because you do."

"I want to. I was a prig. The same as my husband and friends. I was so sure I knew what was right, and what was wrong. I never received evil from you, but still we judged you. We blindly gave our children to that woman, and still we judged you. And then I was finally able to do something about a real evil. I was able to save two children. And that was because I was one of you... and now they are judging me the way I judged you."

"And?"

"I'd rather be one of you than a prig again!"

Megan thought wistfully that lycanthropy was no cure for priggishness, but that was not the time to say it.

"Do you want to work for me?"

"Yes!"

"All right." Megan sighed "you are hired."

* * *

Julia took tentative steps, assisted by Kenneth.

"I am all right. I don't see why I cannot be discharged yet."

"You need a rest."

"I need to get back to Wyncliffe."

"Barnabas is there, taking care of it."

"That's why I have to get back" she grumbled " he took advantage of my being too weak and made me appoint him interim director. I wonder what stunts he's trying there."

"Probably testing B.F. Skinner's theories." Kenneth said, laughing.

"Don't laugh" Julia said severely "you are the one who gave him the book."

"He asked me to."

"You don't even have the excuse that he bit you and made you do it. You did it of your own free will."

"Well, if you don't like what he does, you can fire him when you get back."

"I think I will" Julia grumbled.

* * *

Vicky lied on the bed, her face unchanged.

"That's what the Ring did to her." Phillip said.

"I have been trying t get her back." Barnabas confessed "but I wasn't able to. I want to try something, if you help me."

"Me? All right. What do I have to do?"

"I am going to look for her, inside her mind. " he saw the awe in Phillip's face. Awe, but not surprise. Nothing he did would surprise Phillip anymore "I want you to pull me back in case I get trapped."

Phillip nodded "I am game."

Barnabas took Vicky's face in his hands, then ran his fingertips over the side of her neck. The vein was there and there would be no difficulty in getting to it.

He had gotten to it before, but not like this. That had been only a desperate preying, looking for what he, deep down, knew could not be. This... this was the only chance Vicky had for a normal life.

He closed his eyes and tried to empty his mind from irrelevant thoughts. He had to reach Vicky, help her make the journey back.

As the blood came into his mouth he felt himself fall into the tunnel again. He went ahead, trying to locate the small spark that was Vicky's mind.

As he had figured, the blood made it easier to look for Vicky It was still difficult to see in there, but he could hear a lot better. He followed the keening sound to where Vicky was.

She was lying down, curled into a fetal position.

"Vicky" he bent down and lifted her head. "Vicky, do you recognize me?"

A flicker of light came into Vicky's eyes. "Bar... barn...nabas?""

Then the flicker died.

"No, Vicky" Barnabas insisted "look at me."

Vicky hung limply from Barnabas' arms as he forced her to her feet.

"We are going back, Vicky. Wake up."

Then she slipped from his grasp, as if she was just water...

She was curled up again, lost to him, and when he bent down, he could not touch her.

And he felt himself being pulled further in.

"Phillip!" he screamed "pull me out!"

From somewhere the strength came back to him. He could resist the pull forward. He looked at Vicky once more.

If he could reach her again.

But his hands could not touch her. And he could still be trapped...

He let Phillip pull him out, looking back with regret at the small figure that he was forced to abandon there.

But he would be back. As many times as it took to bring her back.

Then he was in Vicky's room, being shaken by Phillip.

"Barnabas!" Phillip was saying "Look at me! Are you all right?"

Barnabas opened his eyes to the blinding light of the room.

"She recognized me. "he said "I could have brought her back with me..."

He looked at Vicky, She was still unchanged, except for the little threads of blood flowing from her neck.

"Why did you pull me off her?"

"I didn't. You pulled out by yourself."

Yes. As Iris had told him a while ago, his body had learned to recognize when it could get dangerous, and it would stop drinking then.

But because of it, he had not been able to bring Vicky back.

He could have brought her out... Yes, there had been a risk in that. But she would be better off as a vampire than as a vegetable.

Of course, she could remain a vegetable even after she became a vampire... He could become a vegetable, too, by the time Julia got back.

Then Julia would have to plant him and water him regularly...

* * *

Anselm Trask sighed unhappily. Why did people think that being a clergyman made you an instant expert on all problems? Now it was his job to tell Sandy Miller to get back to her husband, in spite of his instincts telling him that Herb Miller had been asking for it.

Would she listen to him? Probably not. If he read her well, she would not listen to him at all.

But still he had to try.

He felt painfully inadequate. Maybe he had gone into the wrong profession. Sure, there had been Reverend Trasks as far as he could trace them. Sure, some of them would have been better placed behind bars. But still it was a fact that a male Trask was supposed to wear the cloth.

He had not done such a bad job of it, considering his ancestors.

Yet, it was not good enough.

* * *

"Well, you haven't done too much damage here." Julia admitted grudgingly.

"Did you really think I would?" Barnabas joshed her.

"Knowing you... all right, what did you change?"

"I had Phillip do those repairs I told you about the other time. It comes out of the petty cash. But if you don't like that, you can take it out of my salary."

"I might do that."

"And I started giving out classes on desensitization training."

"You did not wait for my approval?"

"We had a deal, you and I. If Phillip got better, I could do it."

"And Phillip got better?"

"He survived Roxanne's questioning. If he didn't have a relapse after that, he'll never have one now."

"You still could have waited until I was back. That was underhanded of you. Just like your becoming interim director. You knew that I was too weak to put up an argument."

"But you are not weak now." Barnabas kissed her on the cheek. "I am glad to see you are back to normal"

"You will kill me from aggravation yet."

"No chance, I don't want to lose you."

"You might have to, eventually." Julia said thoughtfully.

"I know..." Barnabas sighed. "I don't want to think about it. But I'll have to face it... I can handle not seeing daylight again. The blood,... I can live with what I have to do. But knowing that one day you won't be with me... That I will lose Willie, and Phillip, and Amy. and Chris, and..."

"You will still have Angelique, and Megan, and Derek. Not to mention Quentin."

"It is not enough. Julia, it isn't right that one day I should be able to visit Willie's grave. He should be visiting mine. I know that you are still working on a cure. I hope that you succeed. But if it takes too long I might just walk into the sunlight. No, Julia, don't say anything. I was at the cemetery the other night. I was at the crypt. I saw the names of my parents. Of Sarah... Julia, it didn't hurt. It was... nothing. And that I would one day read Willie's name and feel nothing... that I could read your name, and don't care... I don't want that, Julia."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Today was probably the most important day in Vicky's life. But she did not know it.

But she would, Barnabas promised to himself. Before dawn she would know of it.

"Do you think you can do it?" Julia asked him.

"I have psyched myself not to pull out of her throat. I'll probably be spitting out most of the blood, so don't be alarmed when this place ends up real messy."

"Well, more work for the cleaning crew, then. Bur remember, once inside her mind, you will be part of her dream world. Unless you resist it, you might end up trapped there forever. Concentrate in getting her out and don't let anything distract your from that."

"You have been through this a thousand times." Barnabas said, with a beginning of irritation.

"Once more won't hurt."

Barnabas knelt by Vicky's side while Julia waited for hi to settle himself and find the most comfortable position before she used the transfusion on Vicky, so that there would be no danger in what Barnabas was attempting to do.

Barnabas closed his eyes, trying to concentrate his mind on the task to be done. Then, once he was sure of himself, he bit into the throat and plunged into the tunnel.

Some part of him remembered that the moment she felt satiety overtake him he should start spitting out the blood instead of just pulling out as he usually did. But then it just slipped into his unconscious as he looked for Vicky in the mists.

Vicky was still in the same place where he had left her the last time. Even in the same position.

"Vicky" he lifted her to her feet "Wake up. We have to go back."

Vicky hung limply from his hands, her eyes unfocused.

"Wake up, Vicky." he repeated.

Vicky's eyes rolled, seemed to fix themselves on him.

"Yes, Vicky. We are going back."

"Bar... Barnabas?" she managed to say.

"Yes, it is me."

"Barnabas?" She wobbled and fell into his arms. Barnabas embraced her.

"Let's go back. It is all right now."

"Don't leave me, please..."Vicky said, pulling even closer to him.

"I won't. I promise."

She took his head in her hands. "I love you she said, kissing him.

"I love you too," he heard himself say.

...And he did love Vicky. Had loved her from the start... Vicky had been the only one he truly loved... Not Josette, nor Roxanne, not Angelique... it was Vicky all along...

And she wanted him...

Then his tongue missed his fangs.

His fangs... they were gone... he could not touch them, could not feel them...

Because Vicky had never known of this - he realized with shock. - in her dream world she knew nothing of vampires.

'You might be trapped there forever.'

He pulled back, afraid for the first time.

"Don't leave me." Vicky said plaintively.

"I won't. We have to go back."

"I can't"

"Yes, you can. Walk quickly."

Vicky tried a few steps, then collapsed.

"I can't" she turned to him. "hold me, please. Don't leave me alone."

"I won't" Barnabas held her at arm's length. "You can, Vicky. Just try and you'll see how you can."

"I am not strong enough!"

"I am strong for both of us. But still you have to help me. You have to want to go out."

"No! Not out!" Vicky screamed.

"We are going back to Collinsport. Do you remember Collinsport?"

"There are snakes out there!"

"I haven't seen any when I came in."

"They are here!"

"They are gone. Come, Vicky, walk,"

Vicky took a step and faltered. But Barnabas would not allow her to fall. He forced her forwards. So she took another step, and another.

"I told you that you could walk." Barnabas said with quite pride. Suddenly all the pain and guilt his curse had brought him were worth it...

Vicky was weak and fearful. Only the fact that Barnabas held her tightly kept her moving forward.

She knew that there were snakes there... she had seen them. But as Barnabas led her, none came to stop them. Maybe they were truly gone.

"You are doing all right." she heard him say.

He could feel her grow stronger. Knew that now she was carrying her own weight.

"Just keep walking and you'll do fine."

"Won't you hold me?" she asked plaintively.

"When we get back."

A faint light showed ahead of them.

Vicky moaned and fought to escape from Barnabas' hands.

"What is it?" He spoke gently,, but without relinquishing his hold.

"Don't make me got there! There are snakes! I have seen them!"

"There are no more snakes."

"There is a Ring there, and bottles and..."

"The Ring has been destroyed and the bottles have been broken. It is only Julia out there."

"No!"

"Trust Vicky. There is no danger."

But arguing would not convince Vicky. So he acted quickly. He lifted her and threw her towards the light. She screamed. A high pitched piercing scream that stayed with him as he himself plunged into the light.

... He was being bathed in light and he held Vicky in his arms, and Vicky was babbling...

"You did it!" Julia said behind him "you brought her back."

He pulled his teeth from Vicky's neck and stepped back.

Vicky's body was covered with blood... the blood that he had been spitting out all this time... and Vicky would see it any moment now.

He lifted her in his arms, quickly, pressing her head against this chest, to keep her from seeing the worst of it.

"She's going to need a clean bath" he said to Julia "And a clean bed, and..."

Vicky held to him, moaning, rubbing her body hungrily against his, but he did not notice it.

He washed her himself and put a clean nightgown on her, while she hung from his neck. still moaning.

He laid her on the bed and tried to get up. She would not let him. He tried to pry her hands apart so as to be able to leave her, but her eyes met his and he could not do it.

There was unbelievable hunger in those eyes. She needed to be held, stroked, loved... She was desperate for human contact... for intimate contact.

She pulled her body closer to him again. There was no mistaking it, it was sexual hunger.

If he denied her, if he rejected her in any way she might retreat into the cold mists. He could not allow that...

He laid himself alongside her and caressed her, and let her caress him, and set the rhythm of their lovemaking...

He had uses his fangs a few moments earlier to bring her back. Why not use another part of his body to make her stay?

* * *

Roxanne flew over the streets. She had to find someone else. The last one had been sent by his family to an institution for a rest cure, and she dared not come close to him again.

The police might be on her tracks too. And worse than the police, Megan was after her.

Barnabas... Megan... even among her own kind she had no friends. The deal that she had made once robed her of any possibility of affection.

She had Sebastian, she reminded herself. But she also knew why she had been allowed Sebastian. As a crutch to help her recover her mind. As a potential recruit...

But they would not have Sebastian.

All she had to do was to send him away from her. He'd be safe that way.

But not to see him again? Alone, completely alone?

But if he stayed with her, one day he would hate her. As the man she had already sent probably hated her. And their hatred now, born of the strange changes in their bodies was nothing compared to what they would feel when they fully understood how little freedom they would have.

They would hate her as much as she hated Barnabas.

As much as Sebastian would one day hate her...

But they wouldn't have Sebastian. She would give them enough of others to keep them happy..

There would never be enough of others... In the end, they would have Sebastian, too.

* * *

He felt both tired and happy when Vicky finally fell asleep and he was able to pull his clothes again into a semblance of decency. Vicky was back and he was determined that she would stay, whatever it too.

"I always thought that Julia's methods were a bit unorthodox, but you have done her one better."

"Dave" Barnabas said with a tired smile "I wondered when you would show up to comment on it."

"And you are the one who got red on the face just because he had to do a proctologic procedure."

"It was different." Barnabas felt the blush return to him.

"Different how? Of course, no one would accuse you of being homosexual after seeing your performance with Vicky"

"She needed it done." Barnabas said with intensity, even as he lowered his eyes.

"I agree with Julia in one thing. You have no sense of humor." Dave chuckled "it is so predictable, the way you fall for it."

"You... you are not serious?"

"No. Of course not. It was an excellent job you did. Both her and Phillip. Maybe there should be a way to give you and honorary degree, after all."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"I know what you are going to say, Reverend." Megan made chopping gestures with her hand. "that I should send Sandy back to her husband."

"I can understand why she would not want to go back. Still,"

"Still, if I sent her back I could not trust her to drive by herself."

"That bad?" Anselm Trask's voice held no real surprise. He had expected something like this on his own.

"That bad. She has already experienced enough rejection without my adding to it."

"She hasn't been rejected..."

"Not overtly, you mean." there was bitterness in Megan as she spoke. "I know how it is. I have been there."

"But you..."

"I got back on my feet. Yes. So will Sandy. But she hasn't made it yet. And you should refrain from making demands on her until she's strong enough to handle them."

"There is the question of her marriage."

"Can her husband accept that she is a werewolf?"

"I understand that her condition might well be temporary."

"It is not over yet. And what happens if the cure fails? She has to be fully accepted now."

"It might be difficult for Herbert. He is trying..."

"Yes. He's very trying... Look, why do you think I forced Phillip to divorce me? Because I knew that he could not accept it. And Phillip is a lot more understanding and sensitive than ... that lump Herbert. Sandy should have divorced him long ago."

"Do you know that Sandy has a crush on Barnabas Collins?"

"Who doesn't?"

"Maybe that is the reason why she is so willing to leave her family."

"It is Herbert's fault, if that's the case. This wouldn't have happened if he was one tenth as concerned and caring as Barnabas is. Barnabas isn't interested in Sandy that way. If he were to go to bed with everyone who has a crush on him, he'd be out of breath by now. Sandy will eventually get over it, Reverend. Now I have to worry that she does not have a nervous collapse. One thing at a time."

"Still I think it is wrong."

"In the abstract or the particular?"

"In the abstract." Anselm admitted.

"Well, we are not dealing with an abstract case, but with a very hurting woman. So save the speeches for when she is able again to make a rational decision."

* * *

Phillip watched Vicky as she tried a few unsteady steps on the lawn of the sanitarium. He face still bore the marks of her ordeal.

He remembered her, beating her fists against the glass walls and shuddered.

But that was over...

He wondered if he should go to her... and then what? Talk about the good old days?

"You are going to be all right." Julia told Vicky as she helped her walk. "Just don't strain yourself."

"Julia" Vicky hesitated "Where is Barnabas now?"

"He's busy. You'll see him later."

"Why can't he come out for just a few minutes?" There was an undertone of fear in Vicky's words now that Julia did not miss.

"Why is that important to you?" she asked, as gently as she could.

"I...I heard certain things about him... when I was still in the bottle... and remembered others..."

Julia wondered how to phrase the next words. She said the wrong things, and Vicky would regress,

"What things?" she asked, trying to buy time.

"I don't want to think they are true..."

"Whatever it is, Vicky, I can assure you that he would never hurt you."

* * *

Roxanne stood at a distance from the entrance to the clinic.

"Come to me, Phillip" she ordered in her mind. "Phillip Todd, I order you to come to me."

She pulled at the mental leash she had established when she had bitten Phillip before leaving. It was still there, still ready to use. Not like the loose job Barnabas did. Unlike Barnabas who consciously tried to blot their patterns from his mind, having discovered that the link could be more costly to his psyche than he had ever suspected, she never tried to sever the connections, only loosen them."

And she was going to use this to kidnap Phillip from under Barnabas' nose.

She would get Phillip to that room she had just rented, the one Sebastian knew nothing about and then she would get her revenge on Barnabas...

Phillip felt the pull. Knew who was calling to him. He tried to resist it, tried to call for help, call Barnabas... but the scream did not form, and Barnabas, engrossed with Vicky did not notice him...

Roxanne waited for him, smiling all the time. He would come. He would not be able to resist her... Phillip would make the same trip those other men had made. But first he would have fun with him, she promised herself. And she'd make sure that Barnabas learned all of it.

Phillip stood now in front of her, still trembling, still helpless...

"I have plans for you, Phillip." she said coldly "get in the car and lie on the back seat."

Phillip had to obey... there was no way he could not...

"You are still resisting" Roxanne said, amused, as she taped Phillip's eyes "It will do you no good, you know."

"Barnabas..." Phillip began, but could not finish as Roxanne taped his mouth closed.

"Barnabas won't be able to stop me. No, Phillip, I am afraid that you are done for."

* * *

"Julia said that you had much to talk about with me." Barnabas was careful to keep his distance from Vicky He knew what the talk was to be about, and he had to be as little threatening as possible. "that you had questions for me."

"I just... just wondered why weren't you outside today."

"Why do you think that is?"

"When I was in the bottle they... they told me about you... I don't want to believe it."

"What was that they said?"

"That you had this... condition that did not allow you to face the sunlight... and that you needed to drink blood."

Barnabas nodded. "And you want me to tell you that it isn't true?"

"They were lying, weren't they?" she begged him. "Tell me that they were lying."

"They were not." Barnabas spoke slowly "but you should not be afraid of it... I have found that there is little harm in it, and much potential for good."

Vicky's eyes had been frightened a few seconds ago, but now they were glazed, her expression withdrawn.

Barnabas shook her by her arms. "Vicky, look at me." he commanded her. and continued holding her until expression returned to her eyes.

"Don't do that again" he said severely "I don't expect you to like me or even approve of me. But you are not regressing into catatonia, understood?"

Caught in his eyes, she could only nod.

"You are... really..." she managed to say.

'Yes, I am. I put those wounds you have in your neck. That was how I could bring you back. And I am going to use that link again. I am going to tell you what to do."

Vicky nodded again, unable to resist.

"You are to get better. You will get well enough to leave this place. You will be able to lead a normal life. You will never again retreat into yourself. You will not even want to."

Another nod from Vicky.

"That's better" he released her "I regret I was so rough, but I was afraid I lost you."

"I can't understand you..." Vicky finally said.

"Don't worry. I am here to understand you, not the other way around."

* * *

"Well, Phillip, this is it" Roxanne said truculently "you are going to spend your last days here... Of course you will not be truly dead... but still, nothing will be the same again for you."

Blind and mute, Phillip could not respond, could not resist, as she tied his hands in front of him, and then hung him from the ceiling by his wrists

"There. You won't go anywhere now." she tore the tape from Phillip's mouth, none to gently "Well, aren't you going to beg?"

Phillip said nothing.

"Not even asking me to take the tape off your eyes?"

Finally Phillip could speak "What are you going to do to me?"

"I will feed off you for a while. Then you won't be good anymore, not to me at least. But there are others who will be interested in you once you have grown fangs. Like the creatures who use me. They always need new talent... You will work for them. You won't like it, but there will be nothing you'll be able to do about it."

"No..." Phillip whispered, pulling at his bound hands.

"Yes, that's exactly what is going to happen to you. You better learn to like it."

"Barnabas will find me first..."

"He won't. I made sure of that."

She breathed with open mouth over the side of his throat. He bristled at it. She licked her lips, flicking her tongue over his skin. His attempts to evade her touch amused her. Then she touched the points of her fangs over the vein that she knew ran there...

She knew how the slow anticipation was torturing him. She savored it.

"Get on with it" If she kept at this, he would start screaming, he knew, and he did not want that...

"In good time, darling, in good time.."

Finally she bit him. She drank freely, without the restraints she usually imposed on herself, specially with Sebastian... only the knowledge that Phillip was supposed to last several days made her stop.

Phillip's knees buckle and only his bound wrists kept him upright.

"You don't like it, eh? Some day you will be doing this yourself."

Phillip didn't answer. He felt too weak for it. He felt the tape being put back over his mouth, and then Roxanne spoke again, telling him over and over what his future held.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

His hands hurt. Every now and then he was reminded of it, his shoulders shooting stabs of pain, asking for relief from the unnatural position he was forced to hold.

If only he could loosen the rope... He tugged at it, but all the got from it was more pain in his wrists.

He felt tired and thirsty. He was weak. He felt like throwing up, but couldn't...

...If only he could see where he was... but not even that was allowed him.

How long had he been there? Hours?

Barnabas would look for him, find him... he tried to tell himself.

...but Roxanne might be faster.

He would not survive another attack. What the loss of blood wouldn't do, hanging in this position, without food or water, might.

...And then...

If Barnabas could live with it, so could he.

But there was more to it. What Roxanne told him... he would never be free again.

She would send him to the ones that owned her, body and soul. He would become their property too, do as he was bid...

"No, not me" he promised himself "I'll kill myself first."

...but he might not be given the choice."

* * *

"Phillip couldn't have vanished like that." Barnabas protested.

"He has."

It was his fault. He had known yesterday that something was wrong with Phillip. He had had a sense of unease, but he was so engrossed by Vicky that he preferred not to notice it. And now Phillip was in trouble...

He opened himself to Phillip. There was a link still,...

And the pain and anguish hit him like a sledgehammer...

"You found him?" Julia said.

"Yes. He is in trouble. We need to get him out."

* * *

"Well, Roxanne tore the tape off Phillip's mouth. "How did you spend the day?"

Phillip kept silence. He contented himself with moistening his lips. He was able to keep himself from throwing up now, and that was a small victory for him. He wished that he had been able to hold his bladder, but he refused to be distressed by it.

He heard Roxanne comment on in sarcastically. He shrugged, as much as his aching shoulders would allow.

"You don't care about it at all?"

"You shouldn't have left me like this all day."

"I might rub your nose in it."

A small sigh escaped him. To be cut down, even for that... it sounded so attractive...

Roxanne's fingers moved down, stroking his throat. Eventually her teeth would replace the fingers, and then he'd feel the life draining off him...

He whined as he realized it... there was no escape...

But he would not beg. He would not give her that satisfaction.

"Since you are going to kill me" he said with effort "would you mind making my last moments more comfortable?"

"But you will not die."

"I will kill myself rather than serve your masters."

"You won't. No more than I did. And you might actually like it. You have conditions. Like the way you treated David when he was chained at Barnabas' house. Oh, yes. Julia told me all about it. Is it true that Barnabas was afraid to leave that reporter, that Falchi kid, alone with you? Well, you are going to have a lot of fun like that, in the future. And no one to stop you."

With an effort, Phillip managed to straighten up. "I am ready. Do your worst."

Her hand was now brushing his hair, carelessly. Then he felt her head rest on his shoulder.

He stifled a scream. He just waited, breath held for the sting of her bite.

"Get away from him!"

"Barnabas.." Phillip said "you found me... what took you so long?"

Phillip's knees gave way as he spoke, and he began to giggle.

Barnabas pushed Roxanne away and began working at the knots.

"Just break the rope" Phillip urged him. "Just get me out of here."

Barnabas tugged at the rope.

"He's mine" Roxanne got up and walked menacingly towards him.

"I told you to keep away from him."

"This is my turf, not yours."

She kicked him below the belt, and before he could react, she twisted his arm behind his back, making him fall to his knees.

"You never learned how to fight properly" she said with scorn.

Blinded, Phillip couldn't understand what was happening. But he knew that Barnabas was in a bad position.

"I was taught how to handle someone like you." she added glacially "There is no point in tying you up. But I'll use the knife on your spinal cord and that should be enough.

... he could still move his legs, Phillip realized.

Roxanne put her little knife over Barnabas' neck.

"You are going to watch what I do to Phillip. And you won't be able to move a finger to stop me. You won't be able to stop me. But don't worry, it won't last long. Dawn will take care of you."

Hoping that he had placed her right, Phillip kicked in her direction with as much strength as he could muster.

It was enough. Barnabas got up, turned at her and threw her to the other end of the room... and there was a cracking noise...

"I warned you that I'd break your arm if you hurt him again." Barnabas said, as he tugged Phillip loose from the ceiling and took him to the door.

"You can't" Roxanne insisted, holding her arm "I need him."

They went down the stairs, with one short stop to tear off the tape from Phillip's eyes.

Phillip blinked... He had trouble using his eyes again...

"Thank you" he said "what now?"

"Julia's here with the car. She had to drive me here, as it was too far for me to fly. She also got water and blankets."

Barnabas took Phillip's wrists and massaged them. He was wondering how to take the rope with his bare hands when Julia's car turned the corner.

"All right." Julia stepped out of the car. "you drive, and I'll take care of Phillip in the back seat."

"You'd better wear this." Julia slipped a cross over Phillip's head."

"But I.. Barnabas... he..."

"You better do as she says." Barnabas said while steering the car. "she's the doctor."

"But she wants me to.. to wear this cross and I know what it does to you."

"You need it, Phillip. Don't worry about me."

Phillip screamed in pain.

Barnabas hit the brakes.

"I just freed his wrists, and the circulation and feeling came back to them" Julia said with irritation. "you just be careful how you drive. Now, Phillip, be careful how you drink. Small sips only. No matter how thirsty you are.."

Barnabas drove, trying to keep within the traffic laws. He always had the suspicion that he was breaking some of which he had not yet heard of.

"You gave us quite a scare." he said.

"You were scared?" What about me? Do you know what she wanted to do to me? No... not just infect me. She wanted to sell me to her masters... she was recruiting for them. And I was not the first... she had done it before... and she will come back for me..

"No, she won't" Julia said with cold finality. "we'll make sure she does not touch you again."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Phillip felt lightheaded. All those hours of rest and being tended to all the time had done wonders for him. His wrists still hurt, but the pain was a muted one.. Soon, even that would be gone.

He was still weak. And he still worried that Roxanne could come back for him.

All he had to do was wear the cross around his neck and he would be safe...

But he felt like a louse doing, it, because crosses affected Barnabas the same way, and after all Barnabas had done for him, he did not deserve this.

Barnabas had brought him back from the padded cell, freed him from his nightmares, shared his pain... and what was he giving in exchange?

"You seem a lot better" Julia said, stopping by his bed.

"I do feel a lot better. I am not up to stopping bullets with my teeth, yet, of course."

"I am afraid that you'll never play the cello again." Julia said humorously, the added severely "I don't see your cross."

"I...I took it off" Phillip admitted "I thought that since it is daytime..."

"Sebastian is still around." Julia sat on the bed "You just don't want to wear it because of Barnabas."

"It is like saying that there is no difference between him and her... treating them the same way... and I can't do that to him."

Julia nodded. Just as she had expected. Well, Phillip would need some talking to. "I know what you mean. I was in exactly the same situation when Roxanne put me in the hospital. Barnabas hired Megan to make sure Roxanne did not get to me. And when I put away my cross in order not to make her uncomfortable, she gave me a lecture on how I was making her job so much more difficult."

"Megan is a great gal" Phillip said. "I always knew it."

"She is." Julia hesitated, then decided to confide in Phillip "Phillip, please don't repeat any of this to Barnabas. He might not agree with it, but I felt it had to be done. I told Angelique to tell Megan all you said about Roxanne, what she planned for you, how she had done it before to others...Megan will take care of Roxanne.." Julia's face became hard. "she will hunt her down and kill her. She has to. And Tammy will be there to push her for it."

"Why Tammy?"

"Because Tammy knows exactly what's the name for what Roxanne is doing. But don't tell Barnabas. He feels guilty about Roxanne and might try to stop Megan. He won't be able to understand why it has to be done."

* * *

"Julia" Vicky seemed hesitant to speak "for how long has Barnabas been...?"

"Like this? Quite a while. Since 1795 to be exact. He was temporarily cured in 1968, and it lasted until 1970. Also, for a while in 1971-73, before he reverted...

"In 1967...when I first met him..."

"Yes. But you have to understand that he had a mental problem apart from the physical one. First, it had been panic, when he first found himself in that position. As Megan puts it, he managed to make every major mistake in the book. Then he endured years of sensory deprivation, a procedure not conductive to mental health."

"Was he... was he the one who kidnapped Maggie?'"

"Yes." Julia admitted, then added quietly "But you don't have to worry about it ever happening again. You have no reason to fear him."

"And plenty to be grateful" Vicky said in a whisper.

Julia nodded.

"He did pull me out of that place... and he could do it because of his... his condition... I remembered that I was covered in blood when I came back..."

"Yes, you see, he had to spit it out. If he drank it, he would have made himself stop and would pull out too soon, before he could bring you back."

Vicky nodded and shuddered in spite of herself.

"Are you still afraid of him?"

"No... I just kept remembering that place... and the other things... Peter and I about to get married and then I was pulled back into the bottle just as I saw Peter being hanged... and the 'Ring... and those creatures, picking us up, one by one... coming for me..."

"It must have been horrible."

"It was" she hugged herself "have I really escaped it?"

"You have."

"This could be a dream... I used to have those all the time, in the bottle. I escaped, and then I woke up, and I was still there.."

"You should talk to Barnabas about it. He had the same problem himself. It took him quite a long time to convince himself that he was not longer trapped in the chained coffin. He could tell you how to handle it.."

* * *

"You look so much better I can hardly believe it." Barnabas sat down on Phillip's bed. "You gave me quite a scare."

"You were scared? What about me? I was the one hanging all day from my wrists."

"And how are your wrists doing?" Barnabas picked up Phillip's hand. "it will be a while before they get well again. I know from my own experience. But the worst is over." he lifted his hand to Phillip's face, but before he could touch it he recoiled,. In his movement he had uncovered the cross that Phillip had hanging from his neck.

"I...I am sorry" Phillip took it away.

"Leave it there, Phillip. It is for your own good."

"Roxanne won't come here when you are with me. I promise that as soon as you get up from the bed I will put it on again."

"Better do." Barnabas shuddered. "You came so close... your teeth were already changing when I found you."

"They had?" Phillip touched them with his tongue.

"They have gone back to normal. You came awfully close."

"Yes. Very close." Phillip put his hand over Barnabas' "when I was hanging there, and I didn't know if you'd find me in time I got to thinking... I realized that, even if the worst happened, I could live with it... Damn it, if you could manage, so could I... I might have it easier than you, because I could lean on you for help and advice. But then she told me what plans she had for me. I knew that it would be much worse."

"She recruits for the ones who employ her."

"For her masters." Phillip spat the word." she is a slave who is selling others into slavery."

Barnabas was silent for a few moments, then spoke again. "Can you forgive me, Phillip?"

"Forgive you? For what?"

"I keep getting you into trouble. Each time you think that your troubles are over, something happens to you. When it isn't Tom Jennings revenging himself on me by hurting you, it is Roxanne, doing the same thing."

"I was marked by the Leviathan"

"And I was the one who brought them to you."

"And then tried to stop them and paid a high price for it."

"You too paid a high price for it. Your wife... and your imprisonment in the bottle."

"If I had been willing to try to get my memory back when you and Julia asked me to, this might have been avoided. I was the one who got stubborn, not you."

"Still... still your life would have been a lot easier if I had never met you."

* * *

"So that's what Julia told you to tell me." Megan said grimly " that's what Roxanne is doing, according to Phillip."

"Roxanne wanted him to work for her masters." it was Tammy who spoke, and there was no mistaking the anger in her voice. "and he was not the only one."

"No. He wasn't" Megan gripped the windowsill. "We have to do something about it."

Angelique shuddered. She knew what 'something' meant. There was no mistaking Megan's meaning.

"I agree that she got a raw deal" Megan continued, staring blankly ahead. "From both you and Barnabas. But that does not excuse it."

"It is slave trading" Tammy said coldly "She catches, them, enslaves them, makes them fit for their tasks, and then ships them to be sold."

Angelique gulped. "What do you want to do with her?"

"What all slave traders deserve." Tammy said.

"Kill her." Megan said with finality "and you are going to help us do it.".

Angelique shook her head "I can't.. it isn't right."

"What isn't right is allowing her to continue. Think about her victims. She is creating them in batches and selling them!" Tammy shouted.

"They will be too weak and disoriented to know what is happening to them" Megan said calmly "They will have no defense. They will believe anything they will be told about their condition. They will never find out otherwise. They will be twisted, dehumanized into assassins and torturers... Think of Derek. Think of his innocence. For he is innocent with all his schemes. Think how distraught he was by what they forced him to do. Think of him being made into a torturer and an assassin. Tell me if it is not worth killing her to save him and those like him." Megan looked out the window. "I pity Roxanne, but I pity her victims more."

"I can't do it." Angelique protested "I have hurt her so much already."

"That she was one of your victims does not give you the right to wash your hands off this. ... I wish it wasn't her. I like her. I will not enjoy killing her, but I will do it."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Sebastian stirred his coffee nervously. If only he could know what was the matter with Roxanne... He knew that something was wrong. Very, very wrong...

How had she broken her arm? And why did she refuse to discuss it?

And not only her arm. She had been acting so strange lately. He had tried to talk about it, but she had only shaken her head, looked sadly at him, and begged him not to say another word.

And her eyes... there was a cold determination in them... what she had determined he did not know, but it scared him. She had kissed him fiercely, but refrained from biting, as if somehow she could not bear it. She had clung to him, whimpering, until it had been time for her to get back to her coffin.

And there she lay now, oblivious at last to the pain in her broken arm. He moved to her side and examined it. Maybe he could set it while she slept.

He realized how much they had stopped sharing. How much of her was beyond him... Why had things changed so?

The knock at the door drew him from his musings. He got up, unwillingly, wondering what the guy at the door was trying to sell.

It was Tammy Innes.

"You?" he said in surprise "what are you doing here?"

Megan wants to clear up some matters and she sent me.

"Come back after dusk, when she is up."

For some reason he felt uneasy about Tammy. Should not allow her in...

"It is one of her papers... It is not that important, but Megan is a stickler for all paperwork being in its right place... It has to do with Sister Kira... and probably you can help me more, because you stayed with her.

That did it. Sebastian remembered Kira, and the part that Tammy had played in taking her down. They had helped each other, had been forced to trust each other...

There was no guile, no guilt in Tammy's eyes... She only wanted to look at some papers.

"Come in." he opened the door to her.

Thanking the scent that Angelique had given her, that caused those exposed to it to trust her, Tammy went in. She knew what she had to do. She had been the one to push it most fervently. .. But she had not factored Sebastian into her equation...

Sebastian who would be hurt...

"I am sorry I treated you like this." Sebastian said as she guided Tammy to where Roxanne kept her papers. "But Roxie has been very nervous lately and it has rubbed out on me."

Tammy nodded "It is all right?" she said. "Where's Roxanne?"

"Sleeping."

"Where?"

Sebastian looked puzzled... "Why?" he asked.

Then he saw the gun pointing at him.

"I am sorry, Sebastian. I have to do it."

"No!" he jumped at her.

She jumped to a side and hit him on the side of the neck. He fell to his knees. stunned.

"Roxanne has hurt too many people. I have to make sure she doesn't hurt anyone else." she felt the urge to explain as he quickly tied him to a chair.

"What do you mean, make sure?" Sebastian's voice was a scream.

Tammy looked at him sadly. "I am sorry, Sebastian, truly sorry."

"You can't! It is murder! You'll have to kill me too, if you do!"

"I don't expect you to understand." Tammy put his hand on Sebastian's shoulder. "I would rather not involve you in this."

Sebastian flinched at her touch. "Save your explanations" he said angrily "if you kill her I'll make sure you pay for it. You, Megan, Angelique, Barnabas... all of you who ruined her life, one way or another."

Tammy hung her head. Sebastian was right. Roxanne was a victim, as much as those sold into slavery were...

Still, Roxanne had to be stopped.

"I will not ask you where her coffin is" she said softly "I will not have you help in any way for this. Open your mouth, now."

'Wha..." That was all he could say before the cloth was pushed, not too roughly, into his mouth.

"You might get desperate enough to call for help, even if you'll have much to explain to the cops."

She moved away. She knew what he must be going through and did not know of a way to prevent him from hurting... She might knock him unconscious, but that only solved a problem for a few minutes, no more...

Sebastian strained, trying to follow her with his ears, trying to imagine what she would to Roxie...

It took a while for Tammy to find the coffin, and she did not feel any satisfaction when she did.

She opened her bag and took out the stake and mallet. Megan had offered her silver bullets for her gun, pointing out that they would do the job quicker and with less complication, but she had refused it.

...Roxanne was not an unwanted dog to be put to sleep as humanely as possible. It was bad enough she was going to kill her when she was so helpless... If you are going to kill someone, you better make it with some ceremony. It solves nothing, but somehow it makes a subtle difference... and you could get more of a ceremony with a stake and mallet than with just a gun filled with silver bullets...

She could only shoot Roxanne if she were standing up. On her knees, at the worst. It was traditional, like the blindfold... the stake was the proper ceremony for somebody lying on her back...

...It was crazy, when you thought of it, but she could not do it otherwise.

Slowly, with deliberate movements, she placed the stake over the slowly beating heart. She knew where the heart was, and would not make the mistake of many others, stabbing the stomach or the lung...

She wondered about Sebastian... what was he feeling? Was he waiting for the scream that would tell him that Roxanne was dead?

She lifted the mallet. Had to be done with one blow. She had no desire to inflict unnecessary suffering to Roxanne.

She struck.

Roxanne screamed.

And Sebastian closed his eyes, whimpering through his gag.

Tammy looked at Roxanne' s body, as the blood kept flowing out of her wound, out of her mouth, nose, eyes, and ears... She had done it... She had pierced the heart with one blow.

But there was only one way to make sure. Cut off the head...

She braced herself for it. It would be unpleasant, but she had known it when she came here...

...Later, she left the room, as the blood so covered Roxanne's body that it was impossible to tell what color her clothes had been. Roxanne was dead. She would not rise again...

Dully she went to Sebastian, released him, and watched him run towards Roxanne... heard his sobs as he discovered the body...

Eventually, she managed to leave.

* * *

"You had Roxanne killed?" Barnabas asked Megan, sickened.

"Yes. You know what she had done to Phillip. What she had done to others, and would continue doing. She had to be stopped."

"We could have kept her away from Phillip..."

"Phillip was not her only victim. He was the lucky one." Megan said harshly.

"You did to her what you condemned me for trying to do to you."

That bit of logic did not have any effect on Megan's impassibility.

"The cases are not the same. I was never a slave trader, as she was."

"A slave trader?"

"How else would you call it? Just because it was vampires that were being bought and sold does not make it less so."

"You had no right."

Megan shrugged "How many tears did you shed when Sabrina snuffed the KGB bitch?"

"Who?"

"Kira Petofi. Or did you actually believe that it was the KGB who killed her?"

"But what that has do to..."

"There was little difference in what they did when it comes down to it. If Kira deserved to die for it, so did Roxanne. And your guilt feelings don't make any difference."

"She was hurt. Terribly hurt."

"And her victims will be hurt just as badly. She knew it, and she did it anyway. At least you did not know what you were doing to her, if that's any consolation."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Dear Sebastian"

Sebastian could hardly read through his tears. Roxie was dead... she had been murdered in cold blood... and now this letter of hers he had just got in the mail...

"If you receive this letter, it will mean that I am dead. I arranged it that way. Megan Graham will kill me. She will have to."

Roxanne... her body all covered in blood, the lips slightly drawn, the severed head over her chest. And her hair, still holding her last hairdo...

He could not stop seeing her, could not stop remembering how frantically he tried to align the head properly, as if that somehow fixed things...

"Forgive me for doing it this way, dear Sebastian. I shouldn't put you through what you must be undergoing now. Forgive me for being such a coward."

"I should have sent you away. But I couldn't. Instead I did this thing. I was shameful, and it was the only way, you'd be safe, or so I thought."

"I have done terrible things, Sebastian, long before I met you. I never told you about them. I have killed. I have stolen. I have betrayed many who trusted me. I have tortured innocent people because they might have information I wanted. May times, dear Sebastian. Too many."

"I believed I had a good reason to. They told me that it was needed to keep the Leviathan away. Probably it was true. But eventually I could not care for it anymore. I just wanted away from those faces, those screams of pain and terror."

"Well, I helped keep the Leviathan away. May times. Maybe that will count. I wish there had been other ways of doing it."

"I did all those other things I told you about. Working on the Underground Railroad, and other worthy causes. But I did them out of guilt. To make up for the other things. But it was not enough."

"I begged them to let me go. They would not. But then I became addicted and they wiped out my memory to protect their secrets, refraining from destroying me because I might be useful again."

"Then I met you. Then I got rid of the junk. Sebastian, you were the best thing that happened to me. You were something clean I could hold on to. I love you."

"And I would have had to recruit you to do the things I did."

"That's why I refused to make you as I am. Because you did not understand all of it. It would not be only the night and the blood. Those would not have mattered. We could still have led happy and socially useful lives. But to make you work for them, to let them do to you what they had done to me, that I could not to."

"They want you, Sebastian. And I could not refuse them forever. I always had to do what they wanted. Ever since the day they rescued me from the death Randall and Barnabas had planned for me. All I could do to buy your freedom was to offer others to take your place."

"I attacked strange men and sold them down the river. It was wrong, but I could buy your freedom no other way. I sent the to make the same bargain I made, to know the Hell I lived in, still live in. The Hell I tried to spare you."

"But after I delivered them I found out that is was not enough. There would never be enough. And they would have you in the end."

"Only if you were free of me you'd be safe. I could not send you away. But I could die."

"The problem was how to do it. I could not trust the sunlight. They rescued me from it once, they could do it again and again. For many a vampire sunlight meant not death but the beginning of slavery."

"I had to get someone to kill me. Not you, you never could do it. Even if you could, I could never hurt you that way. But I could push Megan or Barnabas into doing it. All I had to do was threaten Phillip badly enough."

"So I did. I kidnapped Phillip and mistreated him. At this moment he's hanging from his wrists, without food or water for a whole day. Barnabas will soon find him, and he'll tell Megan what I did to him. And Phillip will repeat what I said I had planned for him."

"That will convince them that I am a mad dog, and like a mad dog, they will gun me down. Do not hate them, Sebastian, when they do. I gave them no other choice."

"Forgive me again, Sebastian, for putting you through it. Forgive me for being too much of a coward to do anything else. Forgive me the pain you will feel when the stake is hammered through my chest. I would spare you if I knew how."

"I wish that I could find in me the will to forgive Barnabas and Valerie. I know that they were used. They had marked me to become a vampire and work for them, and who it was they chose to bring it about matters little in the end. Still, it was them that did it."

"But I did worse myself, and I knew what I was doing. I cling to my anger and resentment while at the same time I wish to be forgiven for worse deeds.

"You will have to forgive them for me, Sebastian. Please do it for me."

"I love you."

"Roxanne"

* * *

"Why?" Barnabas repeated "Why did Roxanne do it? Why did Megan have to kill her?"

Julia said nothing. Barnabas was in the middle of one of his depressive moods and there was no point in talking him out of it He would come out of it on his own.

"I hurt her so much... I didn't know it, but I did.;" he shook his head. "It would have been better if my father had shot me."

"Better, how?" Julia asked impatiently "Letting Judah Zachary destroy the family? Letting Quentin claim David? Letting Vicky stay catatonic? You have done much good, too, even if you prefer not to think about it. As for me, I never regretted giving you a chance."

Barnabas looked at her ironically "Not even once? Not even after I killed Dave?"

Julia went pale and bit her lips. For a few seconds angry words threatened to form, but she controlled herself and was content with looking down at her feet.

"I know that I could claim temporary insanity." Barnabas continued, bleakly "but somehow I don't want to. My pride will not allow me to" he shook his head. "I would rather be tagged a cold-blooded murderer than a cuckoo bird."

Julia grumbled under her breath.

"But still, to know what I had done to you... You still carry the scars with you."

"Would you mind changing conversation?" Julia managed to say.

Barnabas shook his head "I... I have talked with him... He isn't angry at either of us. I don't know how to explain it... I think that I amuse him or something... I think that he laughs at me, but there is no meanness in it."

"I told you to change conversation!"

* * *

Angelique watched the sunset. Another night in which Roxanne would not rise.

And it had been her doing. She had been the one who had found her for Megan.

She decided to pour herself a drink. She shouldn't. But she owed it to Roxanne.

"You holding an Irish wake?' Megan asked her gently.

"It is the least I can do."

"Falling off the wagon will not help her."

"It will not hurt her, either."

"Baby" there was pity in Megan's words "you know what it had to be done, and why."

"She would like to see me drunk."

Megan shook her head, at loss for words. She could grumble and wonder what social good was Angelique trying to accomplish, but it was useless.

Yet, she tried.

"Whatever guilt there is, let me bear it." she said softly "I was the one who had her executed."

"And I only followed orders? But even if the guilt was yours, I was the one who pushed her until you had to do... what you did."

The knock at the door was a welcome interruption. Out of curiosity and habit, Angelique laid down her glass and waited until Chris led Sebastian in.

"Sebastian." Megan whispered "Is it revenge you want?" she pointed to Angelique "you can't hurt her worse than she is hurting now."

"No. no more." it cost Sebastian to say it. "I want to give you something. On one condition."

"What condition?"

"Do you forgive Roxanne for what she did? For what she tried to do to Phillip?"

Megan gulped. She could not forget still what she felt when Julia had described what Phillip had gone through. Still, the way Sebastian looked at her was enough to tell her how important her forgiveness was."

"I forgive her with all my heart."

"Good. Then you can read this" he handed her Roxanne's letter. "And give it to Angelique when you are done."

* * *

Things seem to have calmed down, and problems are being resolved. But trouble is never far away from Collinsport...


End file.
